The Monster and the Mouse
by HG Fails
Summary: 2 OFC, 1 OMC. Bruce has finally found a niche at Stark Industries when his cousin asks for help, inadvertently luring an old enemy to attack Bruce. Now he must face his own past while helping his cousin escape hers. M for language, child abuse (all forms), and rape.
1. Chapter 1

At first Bruce Banner was hesitant to accept Tony Stark's invitation to visit. But the "toys" in the research lab were irresistible, and he found himself accepting a position with Stark Industries. On this particular day, he and Tony were engrossed in an especially puzzling project.

Maybe that's why neither of them noticed the petite woman standing behind them in the lab. Maybe it was her shy, unassuming personality. Or maybe it was the fact that she had used her power of invisibility to sneak up on them.

_Power_ wasn't the right word, exactly. It was unreliable at best, and she didn't have access to a suit of unstable molecules* that would disappear with her. So she had been forced to strip in the stall of a public restroom on the first floor to get past security. When she got to the lab, she found one of the standard issue jumpers worn by lab techs and slipped into it before reappearing. She was glad she hadn't encountered any problems, at least not yet. But from what she'd seen on the news, things might be getting ugly very soon.

She steeled herself for what she had to do and spoke. "Bruce?" Bruce and Tony turned in startled unison, and she had to concentrate hard to keep from flickering out of sight.

"Allison? What are you doing here? How did you get in?" Bruce asked.

Tony turned to Bruce. "Who's Allison?" he asked. Then he turned to Allison. "And how _did_ you get in here? This is a secure area."

"I'm Bruce's cousin," Allison explained, "And I have my ways. I'm sorry for sneaking in like this." She looked at Bruce. "But I didn't think you'd meet with me any other way."

"You were right about that," Bruce muttered.

"I understand completely," Allison continued. "But I really need to talk to you about your father's work."

"I'm all too familiar with my father's work," Bruce said, "and I don't want to talk about it. You should go, now." He motioned her toward the door.

"Wait!" Allison said, "I know your father was a monster. Mine was, too. But we really need to-"

Bruce grabbed her arm roughly. "Don't talk to me about monsters!" he growled.

Instantly, without a sound, Allison teleported, leaving the jumper in a crumpled heap on the floor.

"Gee, Bruce, what did you do to her?" Tony asked.

Bruce sighed. "You know I didn't do anything."

"Where did she go?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. I'm not on good terms with most of my family."

Tony tapped his headset. "Security, I want you to look for a small woman, brown hair, brown eyes, mousy..." He looked at Bruce. "Well, she is." Then he eyed the pile of clothes on the floor. "Oh, and she's naked." He turned to Bruce. "What is it with your family and clothes?"

* * *

*Invented by Reed Richards, who doesn't readily share the technology. _Fantastic Four_


	2. Chapter 2

Pepper Potts was touching up her lipstick in the women's room when Allison materialized on the bench next to the wall, curled in a ball and trembling.

Pepper saw her in the mirror and turned. "Are you all right?" she asked, pulling off her blazer. "What happened? Where did you come from?" She covered Allison and sat next to her.

"I'll be fine," Allison replied. "I just got scared and teleported from R and D on the tenth floor. It's like a reflex."

"Did Tony scare you?" Pepper asked in annoyance. "I told him not to play any more pranks on the interns."

"No. I'm just sensitive... Do you mind?" Allison gestured to a stall around the corner. "I left some clothes in there."

"Oh! Of course." Pepper stood up and turned her back while Allison made her way to the stall. "Why are you naked, anyway?"

"I can't make anything teleport with me," Allison replied from behind the door. "I wish I could. It would save me a lot of embarrassment."

"Well, you don't have to be embarrassed on my account. Stranger things than this have happened at Stark Tower. I'm Pepper Potts, by the way," she said over her shoulder. "I haven't had a chance to meet all the new staff yet. What's your name? What do you do around here?"

"I'm Allison Banner. But I don't actually work here," Allison said. "I snuck in to see Bruce."

"You didn't have to do that," Pepper said. "I'm sure Tony would have let you in."

"Maybe." Allison opened the door. "But Bruce doesn't want to see me." She handed the blazer back to Pepper.

Pepper took it slowly, with a look of confusion on her face. "Why not?" she asked. "Are you his ex?"

Allison chuckled. "No! I'm his cousin. But Bruce isn't on speaking terms with my part of the family. I can't say that I blame him. I haven't spoken to them in years, myself."

"I'm sorry," Pepper said sincerely. "Why is it so important to see him now?"

"I'm hoping we can help each other."


	3. Chapter 3

Pepper had a way of putting people at ease, and Allison found herself opening up to her on the elevator. By the time they reached the lab, Allison was beginning to think she'd be able to do this, after all.

"Look who I found naked on the first floor," Pepper announced.

Tony put up his hands in mock protest. "Don't look at me. She was dressed the last time I saw her." Then he turned to Allison. "That was amazing! Which method of teleportation did you use, and how did you control so many variables at once?"

"I'm not in control," Allison admitted. "That's why I wanted to see you, Bruce." She paused for a deep breath. "My father experimented on me, too."

Bruce shifted his weight and looked at the floor. "I'm sorry," he said, glancing back at Allison. "I didn't know."

"Well, it's not the sort of thing you talk about over Thanksgiving dinner, is it? I didn't know about you, either, until I saw the big guy on the news."

Bruce rubbed the back of his neck but didn't say anything. Everyone knew the "big guy" was the Hulk. If the Hulk made the news, it wasn't pretty.

"I did some digging," Allison continued, "and I found out that while my father was studying fear and the flight response, your father was studying anger and the fight response. That's when it occurred to me that we might be able to find a cure for both of us somewhere in the middle."

"I've been looking for a cure for years," Bruce said. "And I still haven't found it."

"But we haven't worked together yet," Allison said. "What have you got to lose? At the very least you won't have to be alone anymore."

Bruce suddenly became preoccupied with a smudge on the desk next to him.

Allison said, "You and I have experiences too deep for words, experiences no one else can understand. Aren't you tired of being alone with these secrets? I know I am."

Bruce finally looked at Allison, and she saw in his eyes that she'd been right. "Fine," he said. "I'll listen. But I'm not making any promises."

Allison swallowed a lump in her throat.

Pepper's voice drifted gently between them. "I think we should leave these two alone to catch up." She looked at Tony and gestured toward the door with her head.

Tony roused himself from his concentration and headed toward the door with Pepper. Then he stopped and wagged his finger at Bruce and Allison. "Don't get into any fights while we're gone," he scolded them playfully. "I just got everything fixed from the last time Bruce got angry." With that, he sauntered out the door.

Bruce watched them leave and turned back to Allison. A tear was creeping down her cheek. "I'm sorry," she said, wiping her face. "This isn't like me. I never cry." Suddenly the floodgate burst and she began to weep openly. "I haven't cried in years, and now I cry all the time." She buried her hands in her face and faded away.

Bruce knew she hadn't teleported because he could hear her sobbing, and her clothes continued to float in the air as if animated by a ghost. But he wasn't sure what to do. Should he put an arm around her shoulder and say something comforting? That seemed like the compassionate thing to do. But he didn't know all the effects experimentation had on Allison. Did she have other uncontrollable abilities? If so, what triggered them?

Then Bruce's gaze came to rest on a box of KimWipes. They weren't tissues, exactly, but they were the closest thing he could find in the laboratory. He held the box out for Allison, and wipes began to float out. Suddenly, the lab became an awkward place. "Do you want to go where we can talk?" he asked.

Silence.

"I can't tell if you're nodding," Bruce reminded her.

"Yes," Allison answered. "Just give me a moment to make myself presentable."

Bruce smirked.

"I'll meet you in the lobby," Allison said, and the clothes floated out of the room.


	4. Chapter 4

Allison found an empty locker room and collapsed on the bench. She was thankful Bruce had kept his temper under control, but this still wasn't easy for her. She was about to tell him secrets she'd never spoken out loud before, and she didn't know how he was going to react.

Bruce might be related, but Allison barely knew him. When she was growing up she never saw her cousins-or anyone else, for that matter-without her father's stifling supervision. He guarded his test subject closely to keep her from divulging his dark secrets. Not that it mattered, of course. Her own shame silenced her.

Allison understood now that her father's experiments were abusive, and she was not to blame. But intellectual knowledge didn't change her feelings. And her emotions had been spiraling out of control since that terrible night in September.

She hadn't meant to cry in front of Bruce. It was embarrassing, and she was angry with herself for letting it happen. She pursed her lips and closed her eyes... Darkness! That meant her eyelids were no longer invisible. Al was back. She went to the sink and scrubbed the pathetic tear stains off her face.

Bruce barely recognized Al when she entered the lobby. Was she taller? Or just standing straighter? She was wearing the same clothes, but she had rolled up her sleeves, unbuttoned her collar, and tied her shirt at the waist to reveal her belly button. There was nothing mousy about this woman.

Al strode confidently to where Bruce was seated and looked down at him. "Let's go to Starbucks for coffee," she said.

"I want to apologize for my behavior back there," Al said after they sat down with their drinks. "I don't have a lot of control over my abilities, so I had to use my inner wimp to get past security."

"What abilities do you have?" Bruce asked.

"There's invisibility and teleportation. You saw those. And I heal quickly. But that's it, as far as I know..." Al stared at her coffee. "The healing factor emerged early in childhood," she explained, trying to lose herself in the foam. "The abuse escalated after that."

Bruce understood. Without long-term injuries to prove the abuse happened, Al's father felt free to do whatever he wanted.

"The invisibility came a few years after that," Al added, remembering the horrible things she'd seen through invisible eyelids. "The teleportation didn't start until recently," she concluded, her face hardening. "I wish it had started sooner." She finally looked at Bruce.

"What triggers these powers?" Bruce asked.

"Emotion," Al replied simply. "The invisibility is caused by shame." She paused to sip her coffee. "I carry a lot of shame, and I used to repress it. But that just made it worse. Now that I let myself feel it all the time, it doesn't get intense enough to make me disappear-at least, not as often."

Bruce nodded. He had discovered the same thing with his anger.

"The teleportation is triggered by fear," Al continued. "That's a lot harder to control because I have PTSD and startle easily." She clenched her jaw and tried not to think of that night. If only she'd been able to teleport...

"You mean the jumpiness?" Bruce asked, leaning forward.

"Yes!" Al replied. "Do you have PTSD, too?"

"It comes and goes," Bruce said with a shrug, but the pain in his eyes told Al the problem was worse than he admitted.

Like any other medical condition, there were good days and bad days with PTSD. But Al had been having a lot of bad days lately. "Is your startle response tied to any kind of power?" she asked.

Bruce shook his head.

"I teleport back to the last place I felt safe," Al explained, "which might not be so bad if my clothes came with me." Her face grew warm, but she tightened her lips and refused to fade out.

"I'm sorry I frightened you earlier," Bruce said. "I was just testing you. I wasn't really going to let the big guy out."

Al laughed. "I'm not afraid of him."

Bruce gave her a puzzled look.

"I can deal with guys like that. They beat the crap out of you, and then it's over."

Bruce looked hurt, but he said nothing.

"The ones who really scare me," Al continued, "are guys like Jimmy."

James Allan Banner was Allison's father. Bruce understood why she didn't call him _Dad, _but calling him _Jimmy_ was an added insult. Everyone in the family knew that he did not appreciate diminutive nicknames.

Al leaned forward, her face inches from Bruce, and whispered fiercely, "It's not enough for them to beat your body. They want to break your spirit. They want to own you, body and soul. And once they're in your head, you can't get them out."

Bruce remembered his own father and understood too well. For a long, dangerous moment, Al's rage hung in the air between them like static electricity, inviting Bruce to partake of its power.

Al could see her father in Bruce, and she felt on old, familiar fear gathering in her stomach. She stomped it down by confronting the monster, instead. "Come on out, big guy. Hit me. You know you want to."

The taunt reminded Bruce that his anger was directed toward his father, not Allison, and jolted him out of temptation. Then a wave of insight washed over him, and he leaned back. "That's what you think you deserve, isn't it?" he said sadly.

Al flickered, and Bruce thought she was going to disappear again. Thankfully, the coffee shop was empty, and the purple-haired barista behind the counter was too busy stocking cups to notice.

"Maybe you're right. But you need to stay the fuck out of my head!" Al said as she slammed her hand on the table and stood up. "I came to you for help with a technical problem, not psychoanalysis!" With that, she stormed out of the coffee shop.

Bruce sat there for a moment in dazed confusion. What was that about? Was she trying to pick a fight with the Hulk? He considered letting her go-he had enough drama in his life-but she'd been right about the loneliness. He sighed and took off after her.


	5. Chapter 5

Al had a head start, and Bruce had to run to catch up with her. He grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her around. "What is _wrong_ with you?" he asked.

"You mean, besides the years of systematic abuse, the invisibility, the teleportation-"

"No. Why do you come to me for help and then push me away?"

"You want to know the truth?"

"Yes, that's why I'm asking!"

"You scare the hell out of me, but you're my only hope."

"You said you weren't afraid of the big guy."

"I'm not afraid of the big guy, Bruce. I'm afraid of you!"

"Me? What did I ever do to you?"

"Have you looked in a mirror lately? You look like Jimmy! I know it's stupid, and it's not your fault. But it creeps me out. And getting pissed off is the only way I can keep from teleporting."

Bruce stared at Al. She was right. The family resemblance was unavoidable. Bruce saw it every time he looked in the mirror. It was one of the reasons he was always so disheveled. "So you're saying you have an anger problem?" he said finally.

"No, I have a problem with fear and shame."

"And you cope by getting angry."

Allison flickered briefly. Bruce was starting to recognize it as her equivalent to blushing.

"Goddammit, Bruce!" she said. "Why do you have to be so smart?" She turned on her heel and started walking away. She paused after a few steps and turned back to Bruce. "Well?" she asked impatiently. "Are you coming, or not?"

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Back to Starbucks." The corner of her mouth twitched. "You owe me a coffee."

"What?"

"It's your fault I got angry and walked off without it, so you have to replace it."

Bruce finally noticed the twinkle in her eye and realized she was teasing him. "Oh, I do, do I?"

"Yes, you do." Al poked him in the ribs playfully, and he jumped. "You need to loosen up," she said.

"That's what Tony says, too."

"Then we'll have to fix that!" Al declared.

They didn't talk about personal problems again for the rest of the day. Al was a brilliant scientist in her own right and had no difficulty understanding Bruce's research. And as long as she kept her "inner wimp" in check, she was quite the extrovert. So much so that Bruce thought she could carry on a conversation with a rock.


	6. Chapter 6

_Allison fought against the restraints as her father forced the needle in her arm. Fire shot through her veins, and she screamed._

_He smacked her, and blood trickled from her nose. "Hold still, or I'll have to do it again!" He reached for an instrument on the table._

_"No," Allison pleaded. "Not that one."_

_But he applied the lubricant, anyway._

Allison bolted upright, gasping. She sat alone in the darkness, trembling, and reminded herself it was just a nightmare.

She was cold, very cold. And naked. She realized she was on the floor and looked around. Tables, chairs, a counter... "Oh, no!" she said out loud. She was in Starbucks.

This wasn't the first time Allison had teleported during a nightmare.

The phone rang, and Tony groped around the night stand until he found it. But it wasn't his phone that was ringing.

"Hello?" Pepper was answering her phone. "What? Where are you?"

"What's wrong?" Tony asked. But Pepper waved him off.

"No, it's okay. I don't mind." Pepper hung up and started getting dressed.

"Where are you going?" Tony asked.

"Starbucks."

"At three in the morning? They're closed."

"I have to pick up Allison," Pepper replied. "She had a nightmare and teleported." Pepper grabbed a bag and threw in a change of clothes.

"And she called you?"

"There's a phone in Starbucks," Pepper said.

"How did she get your number?" Tony asked.

"I gave it to her," Pepper said nonchalantly.

"But you just met her. You couldn't have talked with her more than five minutes."

Pepper smiled and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Don't wait up for me."


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning, Bruce arrived later than usual at the lab, and Tony was already at work.

"How was the family reunion?" Tony asked.

Bruce tapped several icons on his glass screen to activate them. "Allison has some very interesting theories about the interface between nanites and neurotransmitters, and I was thinking we could adjust the-"

"That's not what I mean," Tony said, flattening his holographic model. He walked over to Bruce and stood on the opposite side of the computer, looking at Bruce through the glass. "How was it socially?"

Bruce paused to look back at Tony. Then he enlarged a graph, obscuring Tony's face. "I don't know." He tapped a few variables. "Allison is difficult to read."

Tony pushed the screen aside, forcing Bruce to look at him. "How are _you_?" he asked.

Bruce pulled the screen back and tapped some more numbers. "I'm fine. I had a little trouble sleeping last night, but that's not unusual."

Allison's disembodied voice said, "Tell me about it."

Tony sighed and spoke to the air. "Allison, you need to tell us when you're here." He looked at Bruce. "Pepper talked Reed Richards into giving Allison a suit of unstable molecules, and she's been lurking around in it all morning."

Bruce chuckled. He was glad Allison could have fun with her powers.

"She had a nightmare last night and teleported to Starbucks," Tony said. "Pepper picked her up at three in the morning, and I don't think either of them have slept since."

Bruce imagined the two women chatting all night like school girls at a slumber party and smiled at the thought.

"Do you want to get started on that reconfiguration we talked about yesterday?" Bruce asked, turning in the direction of Allison's voice. He was eager to collaborate with her.

"No," she replied. "I'm really tired."

"That's fine," Bruce said. "I should probably read more about it before we get started, anyway. There's a quiet little reading room down the hall with a comfortable couch. You can nap while I catch up."

"And if you still can't sleep," Tony added, "I have subscriptions to the all the best scientific journals." He looked at Bruce as he spoke to Allison, but Bruce didn't notice his concerned expression.

Tony had been awake when Pepper brought Allison home, and he could hear Allison crying. He knew they needed time alone, so he stayed in the bedroom, pretending to be asleep. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but Allison must have had one hell of a nightmare.

Tony knew he couldn't take Allison's problems away, but he could offer her a distraction. He waved a reading tablet in the air and said, "You're welcome to browse my collection."

"Thank you," Allison said, and the tablet floated out of Tony's hand.


	8. Chapter 8

Allison didn't sleep and hardly spoke, even when Bruce tried to draw her into a conversation. But he knew she was still in the room because the tablet hovered near the couch and moved whenever she shifted position.

"I'm getting hungry," Bruce said at last. "Do you want to try a shawarma? Tony introduced me to them, and there's this place-"

"You can go without me." Allison said. "I'm not hungry."

"You're stuck, aren't you?" Bruce asked. "At first I thought you were just playing with the suit, but you can't change back, can you?"

"You're right," Allison admitted softly.

After a pause, she added, "This has been happening a lot lately. But it's never lasted this long before."

"Do you want me to run some lab tests?" Bruce asked.

"No."

"But the results from an anomaly like this could give us insight to a cure."

"I don't want to be poked and prodded today, okay?" The tablet landed gently on the coffee table. "Not after the nightmare I had last night."

Bruce leaned back in his chair. Yesterday's reunion had brought up bad memories for him, too, and he'd had nightmares himself. But he was so used to being alone in his experience that it never occurred to him Allison might be going through the same thing.

Tony must have known, though. That's why he was trying to get Bruce to talk this morning. What was it Tony had said when he offered Allison the tablet? _If you still can't sleep... _Bruce suddenly realized why Pepper and Allison stayed up all night. It wasn't a slumber party.

"Flashbacks?" he asked gently.

"Uh huh."

There was a long silence.

"Bruce?"

"Hmm?"

"What happened to us... That wasn't science, was it?"

"No."

"That was rape, wasn't it?"

The pit of Bruce's stomach dropped. "Yes," he said. "It was." He never talked about it, but he knew it was true. There was no mistaking that sense of violation for anything else.

"I'm supposed to be some kind of genius," Allison said bitterly. "But I didn't figure that one out until I got date-raped and recognized the feeling."

A knot crept up Bruce's throat, and he swallowed.

"I was finally starting to have some good days," Allison continued. "The kind of days where you go for hours without remembering the abuse. The kind of days that make you think you can live a normal life, after all. And that son of a bitch took it all away. He turned me into a helpless child again."

The knot was in Bruce's chest, now, caught between grief and rage. He didn't have to be impotent. He had someone inside him who was strong...

"The next day, I started teleporting. The _very next day_, Bruce. It was like my body was taunting me with what I could have done."

The knot in Bruce's chest dissolved into grief. "It wasn't your fault," he said. And he meant it.

A Kleenex floated out of the box on the coffee table as Allison wiped away her tears. This time Bruce knew what to do. It was the only thing left that he could do. The Hulk couldn't protect Allison's body, and Bruce couldn't heal her soul. But he could share her grief.

He sat on the sofa and opened his arms. Allison leaned against him, and he held her. She cried herself to sleep, and soon Bruce was napping, too.


	9. Chapter 9

When Bruce awoke, Allison was gone. He thought about looking for her, but how would he find her? If she could evade security at Stark Tower, she could evade anyone. Besides, she probably needed time alone after their conversation. Bruce certainly did. He knew Allison would find him again when she was ready, so he went to lunch by himself. He walked to the restaurant slowly and took his time eating, allowing his thoughts to settle. After he finished, he took the long way back to Stark Tower so he could enjoy the scenery. He paused to admire the beautiful building and looked up.

Al was plummeting off the balcony followed closely by Tony in his Iron Man suit. Bruce took off running.

Tony had already caught Al by the time Bruce reached them, and she was struggling to free herself from his grip. "Goddammit, Tony, I told you not to catch me!"

Tony landed and released Al, but she continued to beat against his armored chest. "You fucked up the experiment!"

Tony's visor slid back. "What, are you crazy!" he shouted back. "You almost got killed, and you're worried about the experiment?"

"What is going on?" Bruce interjected.

"She's crazy!"

"He fucked up my experiment!"

"That wasn't an experiment, that was a suicide attempt!"

"So what if it was?" Al snarled in Tony's face. "It's my body, goddammit, and it's none of your business!" She turned to Bruce. "Or yours!" Then she stomped away.

"What happened?" Bruce asked Tony.

"She jumped off the balcony!"

"Why?"

"She was trying to scare herself into teleporting so she could test some modifications she made to Reed's suit. She's trying make it teleport with her."

Bruce wrinkled his brow. "I thought unstable molecules already had that capability," he said.

"They normally do, but Allison is unique. When she teleports, the suit is deactivated and left behind."

"How did she discover that?" Bruce asked. Tony started to answer, but Bruce put up his hand. "Never mind, I don't want to know. Just tell me what's deactivating the suit."

"She emits a repulsor beam when she teleports," Tony said.

For a moment, Bruce thought Tony was teasing. He knew repulsor beams set to the right frequency could deactivate unstable molecules. But he'd never heard of them being organically generated. "Really?" he asked.

Tony nodded. "Her father injected her with nanites. If she can can find a way to control them, she'll be very powerful."

"And if she can't," Bruce said worriedly, "she'll be very dangerous."


	10. Chapter 10

_Allison's body was consumed by searing pain, and she struggled against the restraints as her father approached with the probe. Suddenly he was on top of her. But now he was her date, and he was raping her. She tried to scream, but he put his hand over her mouth...and turned into a woman with purple hair._

_"You can put an end to all this," the mysterious woman whispered. "Let me help you." She kissed Allison passionately on the lips._

_Allison's mouth went numb, and her throat began to swell shut. She struggled to breathe while the woman watched her with cold fascination._

Allison shot up, shivering and naked. She looked around, trying to figure out where she had teleported. She was in the reading room, and a massive bookcase was toppling toward her! She ducked and teleported again.

This time she was in Tony's living room, and Tony was showing Pepper a 3D model. Pepper jumped, and Tony looked away awkwardly.

Allison faded from sight. "I am so sorry," she said.

Pepper grabbed a blanket off the couch. "Another nightmare?" she asked, holding the blanket out for Allison.

"Uh huh."

Tony flattened the model. "I'll work on this in the den so you two can talk," he said.

"No, wait," Allison said softly. "I owe you an apology for this afternoon..."

"No hard feelings," Tony replied. "I understand why you were eager to test the suit."

Allison pulled the blanket tighter around her invisible form.

"Do you want a drink?" Tony asked, pouring himself one.

"I need one," Allison answered.

Pepper's lips tightened. Tony had been drinking more lately, and she didn't like it.

"This isn't the first time I teleported tonight," Allison said, taking the glass from Tony's hand. "The first place I went was the tenth floor reading room. The bookcase started to fall on me, and I ended up here."

"Are you sure it wasn't part of your dream?" Pepper asked.

"Yes."

Tony was instantly talking to security.

Pepper took Allison to the bedroom to get her a change of clothes. By the time they emerged, security was reporting back to Tony.

"...the damage is significant."

"Don't touch anything," Tony said. "I want to see it for myself." Tony looked at Pepper and Allison. "We need to get Bruce."


	11. Chapter 11

Bruce met them in the reading room, and he was shocked by what he saw. The sprawling ebony bookcase that had been the focal point of the room had not only fallen, it had splintered.

"Are you okay?" he asked Allison. She was still invisible, but her presence was clearly marked by the outfit she had borrowed from Pepper. "Allison?"

"Yes," Allison said at last. "Sorry. I forgot you can't see me nod."

Bruce turned to Tony, who was examining the remains of the bookcase. "What happened?" he asked.

"There are no signs of tampering," Tony said. "But African ebony is dense. This particular kind weighs about 70 pounds per cubic foot."

"It's not the kind of wood that breaks easily," Bruce agreed. "And with the weight of the books..."

"This was a superhuman feat," Tony said, finishing Bruce's thought.

"Were there signs of forced entry?" Bruce asked.

"No," Tony answered. "But we haven't checked the surveillance camera."

"Wait a goddamn minute!" Al said, reappearing in Tony's face. "What's this about a camera?"

"It's part of the security system," Tony explained. "Stark Tower is a high profile target."

"You son of a bitch!" Al said, sucker-punching Tony in the gut. "You know I lose my clothes when I teleport." She would have continued attacking Tony while he was doubled over gasping for breath, but Bruce held her back.

Tony felt a surge of anger, but it dissipated quickly when he saw the wild terror in Al's eyes. She looked like a wounded animal desperately defending itself. But from what? Then Tony remembered the weeks after he returned from Afghanistan, before his PTSD went into remission, and realized that Al might be seeing ghosts. So when he caught his breath, he said, "I haven't let anyone watch the video. I only kept it in case you needed to identify the attacker."

"I want it destroyed!" Al screamed, fighting Bruce's grip. "I want it destroyed now!"

Pepper tried to calm Al. "He's not Jimmy," she said.

Bruce suddenly remembered his father's camera bearing witness to every experiment and understood why Al was upset. "Jimmy recorded the experiments, didn't he?" Bruce asked. Al stopped struggling, and Bruce knew he was right. "You're not a test subject," he said softly in Al's ear. "You're a human being."

Allison began to cry. Bruce turned her toward him and pressed her head against his chest. "Tony's a good man," he reassured her. "He'll destroy the video." Bruce nodded to the others, and they slipped out of the room. He let Allison cry until she was ready to talk again.

At last she said, "I've made a fool of myself, haven't I?"

"No," Bruce said. "You're having a normal reaction to an abnormal experience."

"This isn't like me at all," she apologized. "I was logical and rational before the rape."

"You were repressing your feelings," Bruce explained, "and now all those years of pain are surfacing at once."

"Does it ever get better?"

"It takes time, but it does get better. Your life may never be the same, but it can still be a good life."


	12. Chapter 12

Tony was engrossed in a computer display when Allison and Bruce came down to the security center. He looked up when he heard Pepper greeting them, and Allison's face began to burn. "I'm sorry," she said. "I lose perspective when I'm reminded of the experiments. Will you forgive me?"

"Of course," Tony replied.

"Then why won't you look me in the eye?" Allison asked.

"I can't see you."

Allison finally realized she had faded from sight and laughed at herself.

Tony patted his stomach and chuckled. "You pack quite a wallop! You should train with Natasha Romanov."

"Who's she?" Al asked, making herself visible again.

Bruce said, "She's a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent."

"Why are you blushing?"

"She had a run-in with the big guy," Bruce answered evasively.

"I think she's had a run-in with everybody at one time or another," Tony quipped.

"I like her already," Al declared.

"The analysis is complete," Pepper interrupted. "There are no signs of an intruder, but the bookcase was destroyed by a burst of telekinetic energy."

"That's not surprising," Tony replied. "A psychic attacker wouldn't have to be in the building to use telekinesis."

Pepper turned to Al. "We can leave the room if you want to watch the video."

"No," Al answered. "There's no one to identify, and I don't care to relive the experience." Pepper started to delete it, but Al stopped her. "I want to do it myself," she said, pulling out a flash drive and turning to Tony. "Do you mind if I run this?"

"What is it?" Tony asked.

"A program I wrote for S.H.I.E.L.D. that erases files irretrievably," Al answered. "The one the D.O.D. uses wasn't thorough enough."

Tony said, "Be my guest."

When Al finished running the program she said, "How do we identify an attacker who isn't even present?"

Bruce looked thoughtful. "What was your nightmare about?"

"I'd rather not talk about it," Al said, flickering.

"More flashbacks?" Bruce asked.

Al nodded.

"I don't need details," Bruce explained. "I was just wondering if there was anything different about your dream."

"I see where you're going with this," Tony said. "If the attacker used telekinesis, other psychic powers may be involved, too, like dream interference."

Allison faded from sight as she remembered her dream. Why did she feel like she was being violated again, like someone was inside her mind? "Purple!" she blurted, and suddenly all memory of the dream was gone.

Tony and Pepper exchanged confused looks, but for a moment Bruce remembered a woman with purple hair. Then he forgot all about her. "What about it?" he asked, rubbing his arm. For some reason, he felt dirty.

"You wear a lot of purple," Allison said. "Why is that?"

Bruce shrugged. "I just like it," he answered.

"It goes well with green," Allison teased, and Bruce smiled. "But everything goes with clear," she added, rotating to display the clothes on her invisible figure. Tony and Pepper laughed. "Seriously," Allison continued, "I don't remember anything about this nightmare. Now, can I go back to sleep? I'm really tired."


	13. Chapter 13

Allison went back to the hotel and took a long shower before going to bed again. She slept late, and when she arrived at the lab the next morning, Bruce and Tony were already busy.

"Look who's finally here!" Tony teased. "It's good to see you this morning."

Al looked at her hand and smiled. Her visibility had returned. "It's good to be seen. I hope you didn't start anything too interesting without me."

Bruce and Tony exchanged glances. Then Tony said, "We've been waiting for you to arrive so I to can invite you stay here. I have a guest suite-"

"What?" Al interrupted. "Why?"

"Someone is trying to hurt you," Tony explained, "so I'm offering you the protection of Stark Tower."

"Protection?" Al asked, starting to panic. "From someone who can smash a two-ton bookcase to bits without being in the building? How am I safer here than anywhere else?"

"You'd be closer to family and friends," Bruce offered.

Al laughed derisively. "That's rich coming from you, Bruce. You know as well as I do that the people closest to you are the ones who hurt you the most."

"This is different," Bruce said.

"Prove it!"

"Give us a chance," Tony said, "and we will."

There was a burst of light, and Al was gone.

"I wonder where she went this time," Tony said.

"I don't know," Bruce responded, stooping to pick up the suit Reed had given Al. "But she's still emitting that weak repulsor beam when she teleports."

"No, she isn't!" Tony said with a flash of insight.

"What do you mean?"

"Remember the first time we saw her teleport?"

Bruce suddenly understood. "There was no light," he said. "The beam is getting stronger."


	14. Chapter 14

Al found herself in Tony's living room and swore loudly. It was Pepper's fault she kept teleporting here. Pepper made her feel safe from the moment they met. And after they stayed up all night talking, Al associated the living room with Pepper and her trustworthiness. Now Tony was starting to win Al's trust, too, and it scared her.

The most damaging aspect of the abuse for Allison was not the pain or even the shame. It was the betrayal of trust. Jimmy had moments when he could be tender, almost nurturing. As a child desperate for her father's love, Allison had convinced herself that Jimmy actually cared about her. But he was merely keeping his test subject manageable.

Jimmy took advantage of his daughter's innocence for as long as he could, tricking her so often that she learned to fear kindness. Then, as Allison got older and mistrustful, he began to beat her into submission. Either way-deceived or coerced-Allison blamed herself. And that was how Jimmy wanted it.

Al's rage became unbearable, and she threw a pillow across the room. Understanding her trust problem didn't make it any easier to overcome. But like it or not, she knew what she had to do. She rummaged through Pepper's drawer until she found something to wear. At this rate, she was going to need a drawer of her own.

When Al returned to the lab she was both chagrinned and annoyed. Bruce handed her the suit but said nothing. Al glared at him and snatched it from his hand. Then she turned to Tony. She waited for him to say something clever, but he didn't. "I'll stay," she said. "But don't expect me to play the damsel in distress."

Bruce and Tony looked at each other and fought back smiles.

"And don't expect any mushy crap about family and friendship. I still don't know if I trust you," she said to Tony. Then she turned to Bruce. "And I sure as hell don't trust you," she added with a twinkle in her eye.

Tony said, "I'll send for your things. Where are you staying?"

"That's not necessary," Al said. "I'll have them brought over."

"I don't mind," Tony insisted.

"But I have highly sensitive lab equipment that requires special handling."

"So do I," Tony said, gesturing around the lab. "My staff can take care of it."

Bruce interrupted. "He won't stop pestering you until you agree."

Al gave in. "I'm staying at the Ty Warner Penthouse."

Tony's eyebrows shot up. He knew the place well because he'd stayed there a few times himself. A single night could easily cost thirty grand.

"What? I own a few patents," Al said in response to Tony's surprise. "I told you I'm not a damsel in distress."

Bruce dropped his head and smiled.


	15. Chapter 15

A few days later, Tony arrived at the lab to find Bruce working alone.

"Where's Allison?" Tony asked.

"I don't know," Bruce replied. "She's usually the first one here and the last to leave."

"Have you noticed she hasn't had any nightmares lately?" Tony asked. "Do you think she feels safer here?"

"I doubt it," Bruce said. "Learning to trust is a lot harder than you think."

"That's for damn sure," Al said, suddenly appearing between them. She was wearing Reed's suit again.

Bruce nearly jumped out of his skin, but Tony was not surprised.

"I thought you might be lurking somewhere," Tony said.

"Is that why you were talking about me?" Al asked sarcastically.

"I never say anything behind your back that I wouldn't say to your face," Tony answered.

Al thought about making a snappy comeback but realized Tony was telling the truth. Instead she said, "Bruce is right. Trust doesn't come easily to the Banners." She walked over to a table and started assembling parts. "No, my solution to nightmares is much simpler than that. I just don't sleep."

Al said it with a laugh, but there was an uncomfortable silence as Bruce and Tony saw the circles under her eyes and realized it was true. Al knew she needed to distract them before they got too concerned, so she pointed at Bruce with the coupler she was holding and said, "You should have seen the look on your face when I popped out of nowhere. You looked at me like I had purple hair!"

Everyone laughed, but Bruce had a strange sense of deja vu.

Al returned to the lab that night to run more tests on the suit. She was pouring a strange liquid on it when Tony came up behind her and said, "I thought I might find you here."

Al disappeared in a burst of light and smoke, and the beaker shattered on the floor. Tony was still cleaning up the mess when Al returned to the lab a few minutes later, buttoning up a new jumper and cursing a blue streak. "Goddammit, Tony, you scared the shit out of me! One of these days, you're going to pull a stunt like that on Bruce, and he's going to let the big guy beat the crap out of you."

"That already happened," Tony said, laughing in spite of himself. "I wasn't trying to scare you. I just wanted to tell you it's getting late. You should go to bed."

"What am I, a five-year-old? I knew I shouldn't have cracked that joke about not sleeping."

"I'm concerned that you're spending too much time in the lab. You're becoming obsessed with this suit."

"You're just jealous because Reed invented it," Al said.

Tony knew she was trying to deflect him and refused to take the bait. "You keep trying to fix the suit," he said. "But there's nothing wrong with it."

"You're right," Al said bitterly. "The problem is me."

"That's not what I'm saying, and you know it. Allison, you have the power of repulsor beams at your disposal. You could bring down mountains! You just need to adjust the frequency-"

"You don't get it, do you?" Al interrupted. "My powers don't come from a suit that I can put on and take off whenever I want. I've got these _things_ crawling inside me, and I can't control them."

Tony took Al's hand and placed it on his chest. "I understand better than you think," he said. Instead of a warm, beating heart Al felt the cold arc reactor that protected Tony from shrapnel in his body.

"These aren't pieces of shrapnel, Tony."

"I know, but-"

"This wasn't an enemy attack. And it wasn't your father's super soldier program." Al explained. "I didn't volunteer for this. Jimmy strapped me down and raped me with these machines. And they're still inside me, doing what he programmed them to do."

Tony's eyes became sad and distant as he finally understood.

"Jimmy didn't want to empower good people to fight for justice. He wanted minions he could control. So he built in fail-safes to keep me compliant. I don't even know what all of them are, much less how to disable them. I'm still nothing more than Jimmy's plaything."

Al wanted Tony to look away, but his gaze didn't waver. After a long silence, she finally said, "You're right. I need sleep. I get too emotional when I'm tired. Good night."

She turned abruptly and left the room. Tony watched her go and thought to himself that he could really use a drink.


	16. Chapter 16

Allison fought against the restraints as her father approached. He inserted the object, and she felt like she was being ripped apart. Then he morphed into the purple-haired woman.

The woman leaned close to Allison and put a cold knife against her cheek. "You don't have to live like this," she said, caressing Allison's face with the knife. "You can free yourself forever." With a swift stroke, she sliced Allison's throat.

The knife was so sharp that Allison didn't feel it at first. Then her neck was on fire and blood was everywhere. "See?" the woman told her. "It's easy. Just let all those filthy little things out."

"No!" Allison screamed as she sat up. Her arm was burning. She looked down and saw blood.

Pepper was suddenly in her face shouting, "Tony, we need a medical team!"

Allison felt light-headed. She looked down again and realized she was holding a scalpel. She stared at the scalpel for a moment, dumbfounded. Then she dropped it and let darkness overtake her.

Bruce saw his mother, and she was alive. He knew it wasn't true-he had to be dreaming-but he didn't care. He wanted to see her again, if only in his dreams, so he could tell her all the things he never had a chance to say. He started to give her a hug, but his father Brian* was suddenly in the way, shaking her violently.

"Stop!" Bruce shouted, but his voice was small and weak, the voice of a child.

Brian punched her, and she fell to the floor.

"Don't!" Bruce yelled, kneeling beside her to help. Brian kicked him. The pain was unbearable, but he had to do something-

Tony said, "Bruce!"

"Oh my God!" Bruce gasped as he bolted upright. It took him a moment to orient himself and realize that Tony had called over the intercom. "What is it?" he asked, still shaking.

"Come quickly. It's Allison."

The urgency in Tony's voice told Bruce he'd awakened from one nightmare into another. "On my way," he said as he charged out the room.

A jolt of terror shook Bruce when he saw Allison, and he felt the monster surging within him. _Not now! _He thought. _She needs a healer, not a brute._

Allison was as pale as a corpse, and there was blood everywhere. So much blood. And more was gushing out.

Bruce stood there, frozen, and watched as Tony's medical team worked to save Allison's life. _This can't be happening, _he thought. _Not again. Not to another woman I love._

Tony saw the look on Bruce's face and went over to him. "This is not a good time," Tony said.

"I know that!" Bruce growled through gritted teeth. He was breathing hard.

Tony deliberately blocked the view and put his hands on Bruce's shoulders. "Lose it now, and she dies."

Bruce knocked Tony's hands away. "Then you shouldn't have called me."

"You need to be here."

Tony refused to move, and they glared at each other silently. If Bruce lost it, Tony wanted to be the one to bear the wrath.

"They've got this," Tony said, never breaking eye contact with Bruce. Bruce craned his neck to see, but Tony shifted position. "They're good."

The paramedics finished strapping Allison to a gurney and left for the infirmary. Bruce started to follow them, but Tony put out an arm and stopped him. "You'll see her in recovery."

Bruce looked pale...and a little green. Tony stabbed him with a sedative.

* * *

*In the Hulk comics, Bruce's father is Brian, but the Hulk movie calls him David. The assumption here is that David was an alias.


	17. Chapter 17

Bruce awoke with a headache and parched mouth-side effects of the sedative. He immediately called Tony. "How's Allison?" he croaked.

"Still alive." Tony's vague response indicated that he didn't want to talk about the severity of Allison's condition.

Bruce understood. "I'm on my way."

The infirmary was like a small hospital within Stark Tower. But unlike a hospital, it had specialized equipment for super-powered beings. Bruce found Tony in the waiting area and sat across from him.

Tony's arm was in a splint, and he had a bottle of scotch next to him. He took a drink and said, "The nanobots saved her life." The implication was clear: without the technology, Allison would be dead.

Tony wasn't reassuring Bruce, which meant Allison was still in danger. And Bruce knew why. The first priority of the microscopic machines would have been to heal the wound and prevent further blood loss. But the wound was deep, and Allison's blood loss was rapid. By the time the wound healed, she was already critically low on blood.

At this point the nanobots should be replacing Al's blood and healing lesser injuries. But they were designed by Jimmy, and no one knew for certain what they would do. Jimmy was a brilliant scientist, but he was also a sadist.

"Drink?" Tony offered.

Bruce gave him an annoyed look. "I have my own," he said, shoving his water bottle in Tony's face. They'd already had several arguments over Tony's drinking. But Tony kept offering Bruce drinks, and Bruce kept refusing. It was like a continuing debate between them. "You shouldn't be drinking when you're on painkillers," Bruce added, indicating Tony's arm.

"I'll be fine in a few weeks. Thank you for asking," Tony said sarcastically.

"I'm sorry," Bruce said. Tony didn't have to tell him what happened. He couldn't remember breaking Tony's arm, but he must have done it during the transition. It was a good thing Tony was quick with the sedative, or his injuries would have been much worse.

"I'm just glad it was me," Tony replied. They both knew Allison would have died if the monster had interfered with her treatment in any way. Just distracting her caregivers at the wrong moment would have been fatal.

"Thank you...for protecting her."

Tony raised his glass in acknowledgement. He'd become fond of Allison, too.

Pepper entered the room as Tony was lifting his glass and glared at him. He told her, "It helps with the pain."

Pepper sighed and said, "You didn't tell me Bruce was awake."

"He just got here."

Pepper said to Bruce, "Allison is still unconscious, but she's stable. You can see her, now."

When Allison was awake and sassy, it was easy to forget how petite she was. But lying unconscious in the hospital bed, she looked like a child. Dehydration had left her painfully thin, but no one dared to give her transfusions or IVs because Jimmy's machines might retaliate.

Bruce sat next to her and took her hand. Her wound, which had run the length of her forearm, had already healed without a scar. But there were other marks on her arm, short parallel scars laid in neat rows from wrist to elbow. Bruce knew that nanobot repairs weren't supposed to leave scars, and he wondered how they got there.


	18. Chapter 18

When Allison awoke a few hours later, the sterile infirmary reminded her of her father's lab. "Get me out of here," she groaned and closed her eyes.

Bruce grabbed her hand. "Please don't ever try that again. You're the closest thing I have to a sister, and I don't want to lose you."

"What are you talking about?"

"I've been suicidal, so I understand. You think the world would be better off without you, but-"

"You think this was a suicide attempt?" Allison asked.

"The scalpel was in your hand."

"_After_ I teleported. But I can't make anything teleport with me."

"You couldn't before, but your powers have been getting stronger."

"What about the repulsor beam?"

"There was no beam this time."

"The nanobots must have redirected their energy to healing," Allison said, rubbing her arm.

Bruce remembered that Allison was dehydrated. He poured her a glass of water and stirred in a packet of powder. "It's an electrolyte drink mix," he explained as he handed it to her. "You haven't had any transfusions."

"Because of what happened to Jennifer?" Jennifer Walters was a mutual cousin who received a transfusion of Bruce's blood and became the She Hulk as a result.

Bruce shook his head. "We were more worried that you'd have a fatal reaction because of the nanobots in your system."

Allison took a long drink. "Lactated Ringer's is safe," she said, referring to an IV solution commonly used to treat fluid loss. "I've had it before." She put out her arm to show Bruce her scars. "This isn't the first time I've lost a lot of blood." She waited for him to ask the obvious question, but he was too polite-or scared to learn the truth. "I did that to myself when I was a child. I thought I could bleed the nasty things out." She stared at her drink and wished it were vodka instead. "I should have known it wouldn't work."

There was a long pause as Bruce wrestled with himself over the next question. He finally decided to ask it. "Why do you have scars?"

Allison had asked herself the same thing countless times. "I don't know. It was the only time the nanobots ever left scars. Maybe it's one of Jimmy's punishment protocols for self-inflicted injury."

They sat in silence, and Allison fiddled with her glass. At last she said, "I've got to get out of here. This place is giving me the creeps."

Bruce was puzzled. "You work in places like this."

"It's different when I'm in charge... Please, just let me sit in the waiting room with an IV for a few minutes. I'll be fine." Bruce was hesitant, but Al persisted. "Look, if I don't get out of here soon, I'm going to flip out." Everything in the infirmary was reminding her of the abuse. And the longer she stayed, the harder the memories were to ignore.

Bruce recognized the haunted expression on Allison's face and relented.


	19. Chapter 19

Tony and Pepper were sitting in the waiting room, engrossed in their tablets, when they heard Al's voice. "Goddammit, Bruce! Get your hands off me! I told you I can walk on my own."

Tony looked up and smiled, and Pepper got up to hug Al. But Al stopped her. "No mushy crap, okay?"

Pepper grinned. Al's cantankerous mood was a good sign of recovery. She said, "I can't believe you're walking around already!"

Al collapsed in a chair, exhausted. "I can heal faster than this. These stupid machines are really slow today."

Tony said, "Those 'stupid machines' saved your life."

"Well, I guess that's one thing the bastard did right... Jesus, Tony! What happened to your arm?"

Tony glanced at Bruce, and Al turned to look at him, too. Bruce hung his head guiltily.

"Aw, did the big guy come out to play?" Al asked. "Did he get too rough with his little friends?"

Bruce knew Al was taunting him because she was scared. But his head still throbbed, and he felt like a bundle of raw nerves. He didn't want to lose control again, so he walked away.

"Hey! I was only joking."

Pepper looked at Tony and waited for him to tell to Al what happened. But he remained silent. Finally she said, "Bruce transformed because of you. That's how scared he was. Tony barely kept him calm long enough to get you to safety. When Bruce started to change, Tony gave him a sedative. But he still managed to break Tony's arm before he passed out."

Pepper paused to give Tony a look of pride mixed with irritation. "Tony still has to have surgery to put plates in his arm, but he insisted on waiting until he knew you were all right."

Al looked at Tony. "I'm sorry. I had no idea."

"That's the problem," Pepper said in annoyance. "You have no idea how much we love you. Did you ever stop to think how we'd feel?"

"What are you talking about?" Al asked.

Pepper said, "Your suicide attempts!"

"This wasn't a suicide attempt."

Tony slapped his drink on the table. "You jumped off the balcony!"

"That was an experiment!"

He grabbed her wrist and turned it to reveal her scars. "Was this an experiment, too?"

Al jerked her hand away. "I got those when I was a stupid kid! I was eight, maybe nine, and I had this crazy notion that I could just bleed the nanobots out. I found out the hard way it doesn't work. I kept cutting and cutting, but the wounds just kept healing. It hurt like hell, but I didn't care. I wanted get the nasty things out. When Jimmy caught me, he beat the crap out of me-broke four ribs and punctured my lung."

Pepper looked sick.

Tony knocked back the rest of his drink and poured himself another. He slammed the bottle down so hard it made Al jump, but she was too weak to teleport.

Al's anger had given her the courage to tell her story, but Tony's reaction suddenly made her feel vulnerable and exposed. "It wasn't as bad as it sounds," she said, trying to appease him. "I heal fast. It only took a few hours to recover that time."

"That time?" Tony asked.

"I was always doing dumb things as a kid," Allison said quietly as she smoothed the tape over her IV. When she finally looked up, the expression on her face told Tony everything.

He clenched his jaw and said, "I'll kill him."

Allison knew he meant it, and a chill ran down her spine. Tony saw her shiver and realized his rage was scaring her. "I'd better go, now," he said, standing abruptly. "I need to make surgical arrangements."

After Tony left, Allison looked at Pepper nervously and said, "I really pissed him off, didn't I?"

"No," Pepper said softly, "Jimmy did."


	20. Chapter 20

Tony had hoped to cool down while making arrangements for the surgery. But he was still angry when he finished. He didn't want to see Allison while he was in this mood because it frightened her. So he went to the lab, thinking a little distraction would help. He was glad to see that Bruce was already there. "Are you all right?" he asked.

Bruce shorted a circuit and tossed his screwdriver on the table in annoyance. "I made it to 122 days. Now I'm back at zero."

"Anybody would have lost it," Tony reassured him.

"But the consequences are worse for me," Bruce said ruefully. He paused, unwilling to talk about the previous night. "The cast is almost done," he announced, lifting the sleek red armor he'd been modifying. He knew Tony would have difficulty making the adjustments with his arm in a sling. "It has all the features of your suit, but it immobilizes your wrist and elbow."

Tony studied the cast carefully. "Can I fire repulsor beams with this?"

"You won't be able to straighten your arm, so you'll have to rotate your shoulder to aim. But you'll have plenty of fire power."

"Thank you."

"It's my fault you need it," Bruce said as he placed the cast back on the workbench.

"I chose to take the risk," Tony reminded him.

Bruce picked up the screwdriver and went back to work.

Tony was hesitant to burden Bruce, but he needed to talk to someone. "Ever want to kill the son of a bitch?" he asked.

Bruce paused and stared into space, thinking about his father. He felt responsible for his father's death, whether he really was or not. "I already did," he admitted.*

"Jimmy is dead?"

"Oh! You mean _him_." Bruce adjusted his glasses and leaned closer to his work to hide his embarrassment. "I don't know what happened to Jimmy. And I'm not going to help you find him."

Now Tony was embarrassed, too. "I wasn't talking about hunting him down."

Bruce looked at Tony over the top of his glasses without raising his head, and Tony suddenly felt like a kid in the principal's office.

"I'd love to bring him to justice," Tony stammered. "But killing him in cold blood is out of the question."

Bruce remained silent. He was clearly enjoying this.

"What I was trying to say is, how do you deal with your anger?"

Bruce leaned back and smiled. "You're asking me for anger management advice?"

"Why not? You pay a high price for your anger, so you'd have to learn how to manage it, right?"

Bruce came around to Tony's side of the workbench and rested against it. Tony was right. He'd had spent countless hours in meditation learning to face his demons. But Tony wasn't here for a meditation class. If he was coming to Bruce about anger toward Jimmy, it could only mean one thing. "Allison's been talking about her childhood, hasn't she?"

Tony was still haunted by the story, and it showed. "Is that what it was like for you?" he asked.

Bruce was silent, but the expression on his face mirrored Allison's.

Tony felt a new wave of rage wash over him. He'd known Bruce was abused, but he didn't realize the full extent until now.

Bruce could sense Tony's anger hanging in the air around him, like the fresh scent after a rain. He longed to plunge himself in the emotion and let it wash away the helplessness he was feeling. But his headache reminded him of the consequences, so he stopped and took a deep breath. "You can't change the past," he said.

Tony clenched his jaw and looked away. Those were not the words he wanted to hear, but he knew Bruce was right. Revenge would not undo the damage that had already been done.

"You can't fix her," Bruce continued, "because she's not broken."

Tony gave Bruce a puzzled look.

"She's hurting," Bruce explained, "but that's part of the healing. Give her time." He knew his advice went against Tony's nature. Tony was a man of action who wanted to fix every problem.

Then Tony had an epiphany. Bruce and Allison were close in age, but Bruce had said to give Allison time. Why would she need more time than Bruce? "Something happened to her recently, didn't it? Something opened up all these old wounds."

"You'd have to ask her," Bruce replied, unwilling to break Allison's confidence.

Tony's phone rang. He answered it and laughed. "I'll tell him." He hung up and looked at Bruce. "It's Allison. She's says to 'get your butt up to security.'"

Bruce said, "She must be feeling better."

* * *

*In the Hulk movie, Bruce allows his father to absorb his energy, causing his father to lose control and swell into an amorphous form that is subsequently bombed by General Ross. In the comics, Bruce pushes his father into his mother's grave stone, causing his death. Either way, he would probably feel responsible.


	21. Chapter 21

In the elevator Bruce asked Tony, "Did you replace your TranQuill?" The TranQuill-short for Tranquilizer Quill-was an autoinjector similar to an EpiPen, but it contained sedative. The TranQuill was one of Bruce's first collaborations with Tony after agreeing to stay at Stark Tower. Now everyone who worked closely with Bruce carried one.

The TranQuill was supposed to be given to Bruce at the first sign of change, while his skin was still thin enough to pierce with a needle. It wouldn't stop Bruce from becoming the Hulk, but it would render the Hulk unconscious before he could do too much damage. Tony had used a TranQuill to sedate Bruce the night before, and Bruce felt like he might need another one today. Day zero was always the hardest.

Tony pulled the device out of his pocket and showed it to Bruce. "I got a higher dose this time, since the last one was slow taking effect."

"If you'd administer it sooner-"

"You carry one, too," Tony reminded him. "You could administer it yourself."

Bruce was about to say something, but the elevator doors opened. Al was waiting for him and grabbed his hand. "Come here," she said, dragging him to a computer screen. "I want to show you something. See that?"

"It's a spike in telekinetic energy."

"At the same time my injury occurred! Someone else was guiding the blade. I must have grabbed it in self-defense, and that's how I teleported with it."

"Who would do that?"

"I don't know. There's still no evidence..."

Bruce sighed. He didn't want to have this conversation, especially today when he was emotionally fragile. But Al was pushing the matter. "Sit down," he said, massaging his temple. "We need to talk."

Pepper moved toward the door. Tony knew she was going to make an excuse to leave and take him with her, but Tony shook his head. He knew not to leave Bruce's side when Bruce was asking about the TranQuill.

"You've got to stop blaming someone else for these incidents," Bruce said.

Al started to panic. She was feeling well enough to teleport, now, and hoped it would happen soon. "I couldn't have done these things to myself," she said. "I'm not telekinetic."

"Maybe not consciously," Bruce said. "But the subconscious is powerful... Do you experience missing blocks of time?"

"No, not anymore... What are you trying to say?"

"I think you have multiple personalities."

Much to everyone's surprise, Al laughed heartily. "God, Bruce, for a genius, you're really slow sometimes. Allison and I have been tag-teaming you since we got here."

Tony and Pepper stared at each other in shock. They knew Bruce had multiple personalities, also known as Dissociative Identity Disorder or D.I.D., because the Hulk was easy to recognize as a separate personality. But they hadn't noticed the signs in Al. For all they knew, she was just moody.

Bruce was dumbfounded. He'd been expecting Al to respond with disbelief and denial. "You know about it?"

"Of course I do. Can we talk about this over dinner? I'm starving, and I'm ready to try those schawarmas everyone has been talking about. I'll meet you downstairs." Al flitted out the door.

"I'll get my purse," Pepper said, following her.

Tony and Bruce stared at each other. "How did you know?" Tony asked.

Bruce said, "I had my suspicions when she first said her father experimented on her. It's the kind of thing that shatters a personality." Bruce knew that much from his own experience. "I saw some of the signs right away, like changes in mannerisms and clothing when she switched identities. But I doubted my theory because one key element was missing."

"What was that?" Tony asked.

"Dissociation. Switching identities helps compartmentalize the trauma. One identity deals with the trauma so another doesn't have to. The core personality is often unaware of what happens while other personalities are in control."

Tony nodded. "That explains your forgetfulness." Bruce had little or no memory of the Hulk's actions. "But Allison doesn't seem to have that."

"Exactly! Maybe she's just good at hiding her forgetfulness. But it's possible that she's close to integration." Bruce wanted to integrate his own personalities back into one, and he hoped Al would be able to help him.*

* * *

*Author's note: In the comics Bruce has already attempted integration, but this has not been mentioned in the movies. My assumption here is that it has notoccurred yet.


	22. Chapter 22

The four friends had been at the restaurant for some time, now. Everyone else had finished eating, but Al was was on her third schawarma and not slowing down. She finally noticed the others staring at her and said, "I need the energy. It would take a human being six weeks to replace this much blood."

Bruce took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. The headache had settled behind his eyes. "You are a human being," he said.

Al snickered. "Am I?"

Bruce replaced his glasses and glared at Al. "You're as human as I am."

Al realized too late that she'd stepped on Bruce's toes. Being called a monster for years had made him sensitive. But he was especially irritable tonight. "I meant an average human being," she said. "We're better than that, right?"

"You were going to tell us about your multiple personalities," Tony interrupted. His arm hurt, he was exhausted, and he wanted to go home.

Bruce was getting impatient, too. "Why didn't you tell me weeks ago?" he asked. "You knew I'd understand."

Al shrugged. "It's not like I was trying to hide it from you. It just didn't come up. If you haven't noticed, I've been preoccupied with other problems lately."

"How long have you had this condition?" Pepper asked.

Al said, "The first split happened early in childhood when Jimmy's experiments turned into molestation." She looked at Bruce, and he knew exactly what she meant.

Al was talking about that gut-wrenching moment when science becomes sexual abuse, when poking, prodding, and probing turn into rape. Like Jimmy, Bruce's father had crossed that line at some point, and that was when Bruce's body ceased to be his own. He couldn't remember how or when it happened. It seemed as if his body had always belonged to Brian. But the sense of violation he felt was undeniable. For years he'd sought a cure for his tainted blood, thinking that would make him feel clean again. But as he grew to accept the Hulk, he realized it wasn't his blood that made him feel dirty, it was the invasion of his body.*

Pepper said, "Bruce?"

"Hmm?"

"I asked if you wanted an aspirin."

Bruce was puzzled for a moment. How did Pepper know he had a headache? Then he realized he'd been rubbing his forehead. "Oh... No. Aspirin won't help this headache. It's a side effect of the sedative." He wondered how much of the conversation he'd missed.

At the mention of aspirin Tony remembered he had Percocet for his arm. It was a little early to take the next dose, but he didn't care. He needed it. He'd seen the way Bruce reacted when Al talked about being molested, and there was no doubt in Tony's mind that Bruce had been molested, too. It made sense, given the invasive nature of the experiments the cousins had endured, and Tony felt guilty for not recognizing it sooner.

Bruce saw Tony fumbling with the pill bottle and reached out to help him. He glanced at the bottle before opening it and said, "Percocet? You've been drinking all day while taking Percocet? Are you trying to kill yourself?" He put the bottle in his pocket. He wasn't about to let Tony have any more pills.

Tony said, "You're not my father."

"No," Bruce replied. "But you're acting like mine."

Tony looked like he'd been punched in the stomach, and he leaned back, staring into space. What the hell was he doing? The doctor had warned him not to drink while taking Percocet-the combination could be deadly. But he was doing it, anyway. It was one thing to take risks to save the lives of others. But he was putting his life on the line for alcohol. And what had it gotten him? Was he really turning into Brian? The thought scared him. Maybe he did have a problem with alcohol, after all. "Keep the Percocet," Tony said. "It was my last dose, anyway."

In the awkward silence that followed, the waitress came to the table and offered to refill their glasses. "Another bottle of beer?" she asked Tony.

Tony shook his head. "Just a glass of water, please."

The waitress smiled. "It's a little late to be cutting back, now, isn't it?" She smoothed back a lock of purple hair and gathered up the empty plates.

Tony wanted to change the subject, so as soon as the waitress left he asked Al, "Which personality are you?"

"I'm Al, the bitchy one. At least, that's what Allison thinks. Allison is the wimpy one." Al wiped her hands. "There used to be more personalities, but now it's just the two of us."

"What happened to the others?" Bruce asked. "Did they integrate?"

"No." Al placed her napkin neatly on the table. "They died."

Pepper was confused."How do alternate personalities die without killing the whole person?" she asked.

"They don't die literally, they die figuratively," Al explained. "They recede so deep into the unconscious that no one ever hears from them again. Haven't you heard the expression, 'A part of me died?'"

Pepper nodded thoughtfully. When Tony returned from his captivity in Afghanistan, he was a different man, and a lot of people said that a part of him had died during the ordeal.

"Several personalities died when they rebelled against Jimmy during the teen years," Al said. "Jimmy's punishment was severe... and protracted... A body that heals quickly can take a lot of torture, but the mind still has limits."

When Tony heard the word torture he suddenly felt like he was drowning, and he began to panic. He knew he was having a flashback to the torture he endured at the hands of the Ten Rings terrorists, but that didn't change the intensity of his emotion. It felt like it was happening right now. He fought the urge to gasp for air and forced himself to take long, slow breaths.

Pepper recognized the expression on Tony's face. She'd seen it a lot when Tony first got back from Afghanistan. But over time his PTSD had gone into remission, and it had been months since Tony had a flashback. The PTSD could be reactivated by stress, though, and this had certainly been a stressful day for Tony. Pepper knew it would embarrass him if she said anything, so she silently took his hand and held it.

Tony was hiding his fear well, but Bruce could still sense it wafting across the table like a cool breeze. Bruce's pulse rose in response to the energy in the air, and he craved more. Intense emotion was like a drug to him, promising relief from the emptiness that pervaded his life. But he knew indulging it would cause him to lose control, so he had to abstain. He asked a question to distract himself from the temptation. "Do you share memories with Allison?"

Al nodded. "We share memories with each other, but she's not the original Allison. Nobody shared memories with the original."

The anxiety in the air attached itself firmly to Bruce, making his skin crawl. "You mean the core personality is...dead?"

"She must be. She disappeared after the rape." Al turned to Tony. "That was several months ago," she explained.

Tony was still wrestling with his memories. "Hmm? Oh... Yeah... I knew that."

"You did? Were you eavesdropping the night I told Pepper?"

"No... I mean, I guessed." Tony squeezed Pepper's hand tightly and said, "Something must have opened old wounds." He looked at Pepper, and she knew Tony was talking about his own wounds as much as Al's.

Pepper was sure Al noticed the change that had come over Tony, but she didn't want Al to say anything about it. So she redirected the conversation. "That means most of your personality is buried in your subconscious, and you're only functioning on two fragments."

Al shrugged sadly.

The conversation was getting to be too much for Bruce. He was the core of his own personality system, and he feared that he would disappear like the original Allison. He was on the verge of panic, now, and the monster writhed inside him, begging to roam freely through the emotion. Bruce forced all his attention onto the movement of his abdomen, trying to lengthen each breath.

Tony's flashback was fading now, and he felt like he was waking up from a bad dream. He saw Bruce struggling and knew he needed to diffuse the situation. "Let's get out of here," he said, "before the waitress kicks us out." The server had been watching them with growing annoyance for several minutes, now.

Pepper agreed. "It's probably the end of her shift, and she wants to go home."

Tony reached for his wallet, but Al stopped him. "I've got this," Al said. "You look like you could use some fresh air."

Tony urged Bruce out the door while Al and Pepper stayed behind to pay the bill.  
When Al handed the waitress her card, the waitress said, "Oh my God! What happened to your arm?"

"I was tortured," Al told her. "You really should try it some time. I think it would be perfect for you." Rude questions did not deserve polite or truthful answers.

The waitress didn't take the hint, though. "That is so tragic," she said as she finished the transaction and returned Al's card. "It's a fate worse than death. If anything like that happened to me, I'd kill myself!"

Al shifted her weight, and Pepper remembered her doing the same thing right before punching Tony. Pepper stepped in front of Al and said, "Let it go. She's not worth it."

Al clenched her fist and considered the consequences. "You're right," she said, looking around Pepper's shoulder at the waitress. "She's just a purple-haired punk." Al walked out, followed closely by Pepper.

The server watched them leave and smiled to herself. She'd been using her psychic powers on the group all night-planting a thought here, prodding an emotion there-and the group had risen admirably to the challenge. But she still had a mission to fulfill. Allison needed to die for her own good, and convincing her to accept suicide would be difficult. But the Angel of Mercy loved challenges. It was one of the few things that broke up the monotony of eternity for her.**

When Bruce saw Al emerge from the restaurant, he knew immediately that something was wrong. "I can't take any more of this tonight," he said wearily to Tony. "Can you explain it to Al?"

Tony nodded. "Go get some rest."

"You will not believe what that waitress said to me," Al declared as she walked up to Tony. "Hey, where's he going?"

"Bruce needs some time alone," Tony explained. "The day after an incident is always hard for him. Just give him some time to walk it off. He'll be fine."

* * *

*See note on Chapter 4

**Mercy appears in the Hulk comics her character is inconsistent, allowing plenty of room for new development here.


	23. Chapter 23

Bruce had no idea where he was going. He just needed to keep moving. He was always irritable the day after an incident, and his headache made matters worse. But there was something else going on tonight. He couldn't shake the violated feeling that had come over him when Al talked about being molested. At first he thought he was reliving a feeling he had when Brian abused him. But this was different. This wasn't a physical violation. He felt like someone was inside his mind...

"Hey, rich boy! Hand over your wallet."

Bruce stopped. Rich boy? It had to be the suit he was wearing, which was a gift from Tony. Bruce was not the least bit materialistic, but he'd learned not to refuse Tony's gifts because it hurt the billionaire's feelings.

Bruce put his hands in the air and turned slowly to see that a group of thugs had gathered behind him. He'd been so lost in thought that he wandered into the wrong neighborhood without even noticing. He usually avoided places like this, not for his own safety, but the safety of others.

"I'm getting my wallet," Bruce said, reaching into his pocket. "I don't carry much money, but you can have whatever's in there." He tossed the wallet on the ground.

"I said _hand_ it to me." The leader pushed a gun in Bruce's face. "Now bend down and pick it up."

Bruce sighed. He had a bad feeling this night was not going to end well. He knelt to retrieve the wallet, and one of the crooks kicked him. Suddenly Bruce was a child again with Brian towering over him. On reflex he curled his knees to his stomach and covered his head with his arms. It was a programmed response to protect vital organs, and it had saved his life more than once while growing up. The gangsters laughed at Bruce's reaction, and soon all of them were kicking him. They didn't notice in the darkness that Bruce was turning green.

As Bruce changed into the Hulk, he had a moment of sparkling clarity and remembered who the waitress was. He would have recognized her sooner, but she had the ability to erase memories. Her name was Abigail Wright, but she called herself the Angel of Mercy. She believed it was her mission to help people commit suicide-whether they wanted to die or not. Mercy had tried to "help" Bruce several times, attacking him in dreams as well as reality, and Bruce was sure Mercy was the one attacking Allison. Mercy was extremely powerful, and Allison was in grave danger. The only thing that had saved Allison so far was the fact that Mercy liked to play with her prey.

By now, the change was obvious to the crooks, and they started to back away. But they weren't fast enough. The Hulk jumped to his feet, shrugging the them off like bugs. The leader shot him, but the bullet ricocheted off his thick green skin and went through the shoulder of another criminal.

With a sweep of his arm, the Hulk cleared the remaining thugs out of his way, smacking them into buildings and parked cars. He had to get back to the restaurant and stop the purple-haired woman. He couldn't remember why. He just knew she was bad. Within two leaps he was there. The restaurant was a small, one-story building, and he smashed through the roof easily. But the place was closed now, and there was nobody inside.

"Looking for someone?" Mercy asked. She had appeared from nowhere and was levitating above the Hulk's head. He swatted at her like a fly, but she floated out of reach.

"It's no use protecting Allison," Mercy said. "She's a lost cause."

The Hulk jumped in the air and grabbed Mercy, but she teleported out of his hand.

"You know it's true," Mercy continued. "Her life is ruined. She's better off dead." With that, she was gone.

The Hulk leaped back to Stark Tower. He had to save Allison.

Allison was getting ready for bed and walked over to the window to close the blinds. A large green hand burst through the glass and grabbed her. She screamed and teleported.

Pepper and Tony had already gone to bed when they heard the security alarm sound. Tony sat up and rested his head in his hand. "Get Allison some clothes," he sighed. But Pepper was already grabbing a robe.

"What's wrong?" Pepper asked as she entered the living room.

"Holy shit!" Al said, trembling. "He's bigger than I expected." She put on the robe and wrapped herself in a blanket, too, but she continued to shake.

Tony emerged from the bedroom. "Another nightmare?" he asked.

Pepper said, "I think Al just met the big guy."

"He reached through the window and grabbed me."

Tony went over to the bar and poured a couple of drinks. He handed one to Al and kept the other. Al took the glass gratefully, drained it, and handed it back to Tony for a refill.

They heard a crash on the balcony and turned to see the Hulk standing there.

"Oh shit!" Al said and faded from sight.

Allison took control and wrapped the blanket tightly around her invisible body. "Al's really scared," she explained, "because he looks more like Jimmy than she expected."

"We'd better let him in," Pepper said, "before he breaks another window."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Allison asked, forcing herself to reappear.

"He won't hurt you," Tony reassured her.

"Why not? He hurt you," Allison said, indicating Tony's arm.

"That was an accident," Tony explained. "Sometimes he forgets his own strength."

Pepper opened the door to the balcony, and the Hulk squeezed through. He looked down at Allison. "You all right?" he asked.

Allison nodded. The Hulk reached out to touch her face, and she shivered.

Al took over and grabbed the Hulk's hand. "No!" she said firmly. "Allison doesn't like that. Jimmy did shit like that to put her off guard right before the experiments."

The Hulk got so angry at Jimmy that he picked up the couch. Al misinterpreted the act and teleported away.

Tony said, "Not the-" But it was already sailing through the window. "Couch." Tony sighed. "It took the cleaning staff all day to get the blood stains out."

Pepper smiled. "I told you to just replace it." She gave Tony a peck on the cheek.

"But I liked that couch."

Pepper smirked. "I thought you weren't sentimental."

"I'm not. It was just comfortable, that's all."

Pepper said, "You can get another one just like it."

"It won't be the same. I'll have to break it in."

Bruce had changed back during the playful dialog. "Where's Allison?" he asked.  
Tony and Pepper turned to look at Bruce. Then Pepper blushed and looked away. Tony handed Bruce the blanket Allison had left behind and said, "Seriously, what is with your family and clothes?"

Bruce covered himself and replied, "Reed didn't give _me_ a suit of unstable molecules."

"I've tried to persuade him," Pepper explained. "But Benjamin always talks him out of it."

"It figures," Bruce said. The Hulk had a long-standing rivalry with Benjamin Grimm-the Thing.*

"I had to play the damsel in distress card to get a suit for Allison," Pepper continued. "But don't tell her that. She'd be really angry."

"Back to my question," Bruce said impatiently. "Where is Allison?"

"She teleported," Tony answered. "She got scared when the big guy threw my couch out the window. I liked that couch."

Bruce was getting frustrated. "_Where_ did Allison teleport?" He knew she was in danger, but he couldn't remember why.

"I don't know," Pepper replied. "She usually comes here."

Bruce's mind raced. Where was the last place Allison felt safe? "The restaurant! We have to get there right away." But Allison teleported back before they could leave.

Bruce and Tony suddenly became interested in opposite sides of the room, and Pepper handed Allison the robe again. "This is getting ridiculous," Pepper said. "We're running out of extra clothes."

"I'm glad you're back," Allison said to Bruce. "The other guy was scaring us both."

"I'm sorry," Bruce said. "He won't hurt you." He looked at Tony's arm. "At least, not on purpose."

"I just teleported to the restaurant," Allison said. "I saw it had been destroyed, and I got scared. So I came back here again."

"I think the big guy did that," Bruce said, kicking at a divot in the carpet where the couch had been. "I have this vague memory that you were in danger. Something about a fly?"

Allison laughed. "A fly? Really, Bruce? I think you need rest."

"Maybe," Bruce said. "But humor me and stay in my suite tonight, okay? You can have the bed, and I'll sleep on the couch."

"At least you still have a couch," Tony teased.

Pepper pushed Tony playfully. "Quit your whining and get to bed! You have surgery tomorrow."

* * *

*The rivalry is a recurring theme in both the Hulk and Fantastic Four comics.


	24. Chapter 24

Tony went into surgery early the next morning, and the others were in the waiting room when Pepper's phone rang. "This is Pepper... What? Right now? I'll be there in a minute."

"What's wrong?" Bruce asked.

"Nick Fury is here. He apparently knows what happened last night, and he's not happy about it." S.H.I.E.L.D. had a way of knowing everything.

Bruce said, "I'll go talk to him."

"No, I can do it."

"If he's here about me, I should be the one to talk to him."

Pepper said, "It's no coincidence that he's here during Tony's surgery. He wants to talk to you alone. He'll try to provoke another incident so he can have an excuse to take action."

"I can handle that," Bruce insisted.

But Pepper was adamant. "I want to make him squirm."

When Pepper got to the office, Nick was examining a paperweight. "Where's Tony?" he asked without looking up. He knew exactly where Tony was, but he wanted to make a point.

"In surgery."

Nick looked up. "Nothing serious, I hope."

"Just a broken arm."

"How did that happen?" he asked, putting the paperweight back. He knew, but he wanted Pepper to say it.

"He had an accident while testing a new suit design," Pepper lied. She refused to go where Nick was trying to lead her.

"That's unfortunate," Nick said. "I see you have some windows under repair, too. It seems like Stark Industries has had a lot of misfortune lately." Nick sat on the edge of the desk and folded his arms.

Pepper was silent. Nick was treating the office as his own to intimidate her, but it wasn't working.

"Where's Bruce?" Nick asked.

"In the waiting room."

"He's not sleeping off last night's rampage?"

Nick was trying to goad Pepper into admitting what happened, but she wasn't going to budge. "What are you trying to say, Nick?"

Nick switched to a more direct approach. "We know Bruce has had two incidents in the last twenty-four hours. That monster of his put four men in the hospital and destroyed a building."

Pepper hadn't heard about the injured men, but she could easily guess what happened. "Four against one? That sounds like a gang, to me. As for the building, I'm sure the owner will receive a sizable grant to rebuild."

Nick said, "From one of Tony's charities, no doubt."

Pepper tilted her head but said nothing.

"Bruce is a threat to security, and he has to leave."

Pepper said, "He's a guest of Stark Industries, a visiting scholar whose talent is a valuable asset to the company... He's staying." Pepper was confident she'd win this round. S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn't expend the resources to retrieve Bruce from Stark Tower security without good reason, and the Hulk wasn't a serious threat-not yet, anyway.

"This cousin of his, is she an asset, too?"

"Of course she is. Stark Industries always has a place for brilliant minds."

"And powerful bodies."

Pepper was silent. She wasn't going to take the bait.

Nick said, "You don't know what you're dealing with. We do. Allison can't control her powers as it is, and there are more that haven't been activated yet. What do you think will happen when those powers come out?"

The implication of Nick's words infuriated Pepper. "The government knew about Jimmy's experiments?"

Nick just looked at her.

"A child was tortured, Nick. How can you condone that?"

"I don't condone it. But I can't change the fact that it happened, either. The Banners are a threat, regardless of how they got their powers."

Pepper wasn't going to drop the subject. "If you know so much about Allison, why don't you do something to help her? At the very least you could tell her about these latent powers."

Nick leaned close to Pepper's ear and whispered, "I just did."

Pepper studied Nick's face carefully and saw that this was the real reason for his visit. Someone must be monitoring them, or Nick would have been more straightforward.  
Nick leaned back and said, "If you want to take in every stray Banner that comes along, that's your business. But I suggest you do it somewhere else, somewhere isolated, for _everyone's_ safety."

Pepper understood from the way Nick said everyone that he was talking about Allison and Bruce more than the citizens of New York. His pressure about the Hulk had been a show for the mysterious observer, and it gave the four friends an excuse to leave without raising suspicion. Pepper nodded to show Nick that she got the message.

Nick was satisfied that he'd made the point. "You're making a big mistake if you don't leave soon," he said, going out the door.

As Pepper watched Nick leave, she wondered just what they'd gotten into with Allison.


	25. Chapter 25

Tony was pleasantly surprised to see three faces when he awoke. Despite his playboy reputation, he'd been alone most of his life. His immediate family was dead, and the people he partied with were not close friends who would wait for him to come out of surgery. "You didn't have to come," he said. "I'll be back in the lab this afternoon."

Allison said, "We wanted to be here."

Tony was getting embarrassed, so he changed the subject. "I can't wait to try out this cast," he said, wiggling his fingers. "But I need a target."

Pepper said, "Nick Fury was here while you were under."

"He'd make a good target," Tony quipped, and Pepper gave him an annoyed look. "Let me guess," Tony said. "He tried to pressure Bruce into leaving."

"Something like that," Pepper replied. She didn't know how closely they were being monitored, so she decided to tell them the rest of the story elsewhere. "I hope you feel like going out by lunch time. There's a new restaurant I want to try."

Pepper insisted on taking them to lunch in her own car instead of using one of Tony's chauffeured limousines because she wanted to be inconspicuous if they were being followed. She took them well outside the city and parked in front of a roadside diner.

Allison stared at the dilapidated building. "You brought us all the way out here for this?"

"I hope the food is worth the drive," Tony said, "because the atmosphere isn't."

"I have no idea," Pepper admitted, "but it's remote. There aren't any buildings nearby to hide someone with surveillance equipment." As they went inside, Pepper briefly explained what had transpired with Nick.

"I never know whose side Nick is on," Bruce said as they sat at a table. It had a wad of napkins under one leg to keep it from wobbling.

"I think he likes to keep us guessing," Tony said, discovering that the napkins didn't work.

A waitress in a dingy apron came by to take their order. Al ordered a huge meal, as usual, and the others looked at her dubiously. "It's not like I have to worry about food poisoning," she explained after the waitress left. Then she turned to Pepper. "Did Nick give any indication what my powers might be or how to activate them?"

Pepper shook her head.

Allison said, "I shouldn't have let those men confiscate Jimmy's records. All the information was probably in there."

"When did that happen?" Bruce asked.

"A couple of years after the rebellion," Allison answered. The fact that she reckoned time by her failed rebellion against Jimmy spoke volumes about its impact on her life. "I was seventeen. Some men in dark suits came to the house and said they had a warrant for Jimmy's arrest, but they didn't show it to me. They didn't even show identification." Allison picked at a rip in the vinyl table cloth. "I let them in, anyway. It didn't matter to me who they were, as long as they took Jimmy away. They gathered up all his equipment and records and left. Jimmy never came home that night, so I figured he skipped town or got arrested."

Pepper finally asked the question that had been bothering her for some time, now. "Where was your mother?"

"She died when I was two."

"So you were alone at seventeen?"

Allison shrugged. "I was a prodigy, so I was in college working on my Ph.D. by that time. I was only living at home because I was scared to defy Jimmy."

Tony understood what it was like to be alone at an early age. He entered college at fifteen, and his parents died when he was seventeen.* He was able to take care of himself by then, but the loss was still devastating. Tony noticed Pepper watching him and knew she was thinking about his loss, too. It made him feel vulnerable, so he swallowed the knot that was creeping up his throat and redirected the conversation. "Did you ever find out what happened to Jimmy?"

"I didn't care what happened to him. I was just happy to be free."

"Weren't you scared he'd come back?" Bruce asked.

"Of course I was! My first instinct was to run away while I had the chance, but I was afraid I'd activate some kind of automated punishment protocol if I did. I tested the limits for several months before I finally decided it was safe to leave. But I still worry that some day I'll trip a trigger I don't even know I have, and the nanobots will kill me."

The server brought the food just in time. Tony stabbed his steak ferociously while thinking of Jimmy.

"It took me years to get past the nightmares and flashbacks. But I should have known happy endings aren't real." Allison suddenly lost her appetite and pushed her plate away. "It only took one incident to bring everything crashing down."

Everyone knew Allison was talking about the rape. Tony continued sawing at his steak angrily, and Bruce began to carefully dissect a rubbery green bean. Pepper was the only one looking at Allison. "It may have been one incident," Pepper said, "but it was a major trauma."

"You'd think I'd be used to trauma by now," Allison replied.

Bruce pushed the contents of the green bean into a neat row with his fork and said, "You never get used to trauma." He glanced at Allison without raising his head, and she knew he was speaking from experience.

Allison swallowed hard. "I wish I'd learned to teleport sooner." She looked at Tony. "I started teleporting the day after the rape," she explained.

Bruce mashed the remains of the green bean. How many times had he told Allison it wasn't her fault? But she still didn't believe him.

Tony looked up sharply. "The day after?" He was hearing the story for the first time, and he was hearing it from a different perspective than Bruce. Bruce was hearing it as an abuse survivor, but Tony was hearing it as a scientist.

Allison's face burned with shame, and she dropped her head.

Bruce kicked Tony under the table and gave him an exasperated look. Allison felt bad enough already, and he didn't want Tony rubbing it in.

Tony got the message, but he knew what he was doing. "You know what this means?" he asked.

"That I wanted it to happen," Allison replied without looking up.

"No, of course not!" Tony said. "It means your ability was activated by trauma. You didn't teleport to safety during the rape because you couldn't. The switch hadn't been flipped yet."

"I know that," Allison said. "But it doesn't change the way I feel."

A realization dawned on Bruce. "That's why you've been studying neurotransmitters, isn't it?" Allison had told him about her research on brain chemistry and nanobots, but Bruce hadn't made the connection to trauma until now. "Trauma causes a spike in certain neurotransmitters, and that could be used as a signal for the nanobots activate a power."

Allison nodded. "Yes, but the spike resets the body's threshold, causing the long-term production of some neurotransmitters to decrease." She waited to see which of the scientists would reach the next logical conclusion.

But it was Pepper who spoke first. "You want to take antidepressants, but you're afraid bringing your serotonin level back to normal would trigger a new power." Everyone stared at her. "I may have majored in business," she said, "but that doesn't mean I have an aversion to science."

Pepper was right. Decreased levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin had been linked to both PTSD and depression. The treatment for both conditions often involved antidepressants that inhibited the re-uptake of serotonin, allowing more of it to circulate freely. Since Allison's serotonin levels had probably been low for years, it was possible that the nanobots had reset their activation point. Without Jimmy's research notes, no one could be sure.

Tony said, "Trauma seems like an inefficient and unreliable way to build an army."

"Remember what I told you?" Allison said. "Jimmy didn't want soldiers; he wanted minions."Tony stared at Allison. She was right. If Jimmy could terrorize his minions into submission before they got their powers, they'd be easier to manage afterward. They'd be prone to mental illness, but as long as they were obedient and performed their duties, Jimmy didn't care.

"Where do we go from here?" Pepper asked. "Nick made it clear you weren't safe at Stark Tower."

"I'll just go back to my bunker," Al said.

Tony was surprised. "You have a bunker?"

"You don't?" Al asked with equal surprise.

"Of course I do," Tony said. "But I used to make weapons."

"Well, I am a weapon, or I was supposed to be," Al explained.

"Where is this bunker?" Bruce asked.

"A little island in the Pacific**," Allison said, "that used to be gamma bomb test site."

Bruce said, "I want to go with you."

"It's not a tropical paradise," Allison explained. "It's barren, and there's still a lot of residual radiation."

Bruce smirked. "That's not a problem for me."

"And I have suits to protect Pepper and me," Tony said.

Pepper fought back a smile. Tony and Bruce both felt protective of Allison. But Pepper knew Allison was stronger than they realized. They hadn't spent an entire night listening to her life story. If they wanted to go to the island, though, Pepper wouldn't argue. The two geniuses needed more people in their lives who truly understood them.

Allison found the rip in the tablecloth again and began picking at it. "I've never had visitors," she confessed. "The whole point of living on a radioactive island is to keep people out... But if you don't mind being stuck on a desert island with me, you're welcome."

The friends began eagerly planning their trip, completely unaware that Mercy was hovering invisibly above the diner, listening to every thought. Mercy smiled at their ignorance. She had hidden her identity and powers from the group so well that Pepper honestly believed coming all the way out here would give them privacy.

A stern voice inside Mercy's head said, _I am very disappointed in you. You have strayed from your mission._

Mercy recognized the Voice of God. _No, I haven't, she thought in response. I'm just having a little fun along the way._

_I very specifically told you not to harm Allison. You were to bring her to the altar pristine and unblemished._

Mercy laughed. _There's nothing pristine and unblemished about that woman. Let me put her out of her misery, and I'll find you another lamb, a better one._

The Voice of God boomed inside Mercy's head. _You would dare to question me? Allison is my chosen one. You will not harm her in any way._

_But what about my calling, lord? Mercy thought. What about all the poor souls who need liberation from their suffering?_

But the Voice of God was silent.

Mercy lowered herself onto the roof, still shaking from her encounter. When the Voice first told her that Allison was the chosen one, she didn't believe it. Allison was just like all the others who needed suicide. But both times when Mercy tried to help Allison die, the Voice spoke to her afterward, reaffirming that this mission was different. Mercy wouldn't dare to disobey the Voice a third time. She would bring Allison into the fold unharmed. But the Voice never told her to abandon her original calling. She was still free to put others out of their misery, and she knew just where to start.

* * *

*These ages are from the Iron Man comics. Tony did not take over the company until 21 because it was held in trust, just as the Iron Man movie states.

**The comics never mention island tests of gamma bombs, but it's reasonable to assume they would have been tested in the same ways as other nuclear weapons.


	26. Chapter 26

The four friends arrived at the island a couple of days later. Al had her own plane and pilot's license, so they didn't have to entrust their location to anyone else. Bruce stepped off the plane first, inhaled deeply, and smiled. He and Al were both immune to the harmful effects of gamma radiation. In fact, the radiation was good for them. It fueled their powers and invigorated them. And since they retained all the rays they absorbed, they were slowly decontaminating the island.

Tony and Pepper emerged next, wearing their armor, which was radiation proof. "It's bigger than I expected," Tony said.

Al smiled. "Wait until you see the bunker." She led them to a natural cave blocked by massive doors. "It was too small when I got it from the military" she explained, placing her eye to the retinal scanner, "so I hollowed it out some more." They passed through a decontamination chamber and entered a sprawling, underground mansion.

"It's been a while since I lived here on a regular basis," Al admitted. "When I was younger, I dreamed of having a secure and remote place like this, where no one could hurt me, not even Jimmy. So when I amassed my fortune, I acquired this property from the government and turned it into my dream home." Al led them quickly past luxurious furniture and state-of-the-art entertainment. Her real dream lay deeper in the compound.

"At that time I thought I was the only gamma-resistant person on earth." Al looked at Bruce. "It wasn't until later that I learned about the 'family business.' And of course, there are always people with armor," Al nodded at Tony. "But radiation is still a good privacy barrier. Too good. I got lonely out here by myself and moved back to the mainland. But I still use this place as a retreat."

Al stopped at a reinforced door and pressed her hand on the security pad. The door slid open to reveal a massive research facility. "This is where I go for fun and relaxation." She held out her hand invitingly, and Tony and Bruce rushed inside like kids entering a toy store. They bounced from station to station, admiring the instruments and making plans. But jet lag was catching up to them, and their plans would have to wait until morning.

Al led her friends to a series of fully furnished bedrooms and let them take their pick. "Why do you have extra bedrooms if you never planned to have guests?" Pepper asked.

Al flickered. "I was having a lot of nightmares when I built these," she admitted. "I didn't want to associate my bedroom with nightmares, so I got in the habit of changing rooms frequently."

"Did it work?" Pepper asked.

"No," Al replied. "The nightmares followed me wherever I went. They still do."


	27. Chapter 27

_Icy waves of terror shook young Bruce as he stared at his mother's dead body. Suddenly his father turned and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him up. Bruce kicked desperately and clawed at Brian's fingers, struggling for air, but to no avail.*_

_"If you breathe a word of this to anyone, you'll go to hell," Brian growled. "And I'll send you there myself."_

Bruce awoke in a panic, but he couldn't move. Mercy was sitting on him, using her telekinesis to hold him down and choke him. He felt her mind inside his and heard her thinking, _You let your mother die... You killed your father... You're a monster!_

Bruce recognized Mercy only because she wanted him to remember her...and fear her. But Bruce wasn't afraid. He knew Mercy wouldn't kill him outright. It wasn't her way. She thought of herself as a suicide assistant, which meant her victims had to agree to die. That's why her previous attacks on Allison had not been fatal. True, Mercy could be very persuasive, especially when she used torture. But Bruce only had to resist her long enough to turn into the Hulk.

This time, though, Mercy did something completely unexpected: she pulled down Bruce's pants. His body was reacting to the loss of oxygen, and Mercy gave him an impish smile. I expected more, she thought, and the words cut through Bruce's mind, humiliating him. He closed his eyes and focused on his anger, trying desperately to awaken the Hulk. But in one sickening move, it was too late. All emotion drained from Bruce as Mercy raped him. And without emotion, Bruce couldn't change into the Hulk. All he could do was lie there and wait. It seemed like the rape would never end. Then he became light-headed...and aroused. He knew it was a normal response to suffocation, but he fought it. He could not give Mercy this victory. _No_, he thought, _no,no, no, no! _But he peaked anyway.

Mercy looked at him with satisfied disgust, like she'd just squashed a bug, and thought, _You want to die, now...don't you?_

Bruce almost agreed. He was crushed by shame, and he couldn't imagine that it would ever end. How would he live with himself? But he had to live, if for no other reason than to spite Mercy. So he gathered all his willpower into one mental shout: _No!_

Mercy was furious, and her thoughts tore through Bruce's mind. _You'll beg for death by the time I'm through with you!_

Bruce had hoped the rape was over. But Mercy was just getting started. She morphed into a monster and became more violent, slamming Bruce around like a rag doll and hurting him until he passed out from the pain.

When Bruce awoke a few minutes later, Mercy had changed back and was smugly pulling up his pants. The rape was finally over, but the aftermath was just beginning. And that was when the Hulk emerged.

* * *

*Very loosely based on the Hulk comic. Brian did threaten Bruce with hell, but not in this way.


	28. Chapter 28

The Hulk broke free from Mercy and threw her across the room. She shot energy spikes at him, but his skin was too thick. He rushed at her. But Mercy teleported at the last second, and he went crashing though the wall. Allison's bedroom was on the other side, and when the Hulk broke through, she panicked and teleported in an explosion. The room caught fire, activating the sprinkler system.

Tony and Pepper were sleeping two doors down. When they heard the noise they went for their suits, but the Hulk smashed through the wall before they could get there. "Suit up!" Tony shouted to Pepper. "I'll hold him off with my cast." He fired at the Hulk. But it was difficult to aim with his arm bent by the cast, and he missed. The Hulk charged at him, and he fired again, hitting his mark this time. The Hulk roared and came at Tony once more. Tony fired another beam and missed. The Hulk was bearing down on him now, and he knew he wouldn't have time to take another shot.

Just then Pepper threw herself between them, wearing her suit. The Hulk smacked her, and she went tumbling across the room. But she was on her feet in an instant and firing at him. "For God's sake, get dressed!" she yelled at Tony.  
"I'm trying!" Tony shouted back. "But these portable suits aren't activating quickly enough."

"Tell me about it," Pepper said, dodging a giant green fist and firing another shot.

The suit finally activated and began wrapping itself around Tony. "I'm going to have to adjust the-"

"I don't care!" Pepper exclaimed. "Just get over here."

Tony said, "We've got to go topside." He pointed his good arm at the ceiling and blasted a hole in the roof. They flew through it just as the Hulk lunged at them. The Hulk leaped through the hole after them.

"How long can this go on?" Pepper asked, flying out of the Hulk's reach.

"I have no idea," Tony admitted. "Maybe he'll calm down now that we can use evasive maneuvers and don't have to keep shooting him."

"I don't know," Pepper said. "He's really angry. I wonder what set him off."

The phone in Tony's suit rang, and he saw on the caller I.D. that it was Allison. "What?" he snapped. "I'm a little busy."

"Is he...still green?" Allison asked.

Tony could tell by the timid voice that he was speaking to Allison, not Al. "Yes!" he said as he ducked a flying boulder.

"What's going on?"

"Just playing a little dodge ball."

There was a long silence as Allison tried to figure out what that meant. "I tried to call Pepper, but she didn't answer."

"She's busy, too." Tony looked over at Pepper, who was shooting straight up like a rocket to avoid the Hulk's grasp. Tony flew over to distract the Hulk from Pepper.

There was another long silence. "Are you in danger?"

"Only if we take our suits off," Tony said. The Hulk jumped in the air and smacked Tony like he was making a slam dunk. Tony fought to stay aloft. "Can I call you back?"

They were still playing cat and mouse with the Hulk thirty minutes later when Tony's phone rang again. "Still busy!" he shouted.

This time it was Al. "What the fuck is going on? You said you'd call back, and Pepper still isn't answering her phone."

Tony was too busy dodging a punch to answer.

"He's still green, isn't he?"

"Yes! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm trying not to get pummeled, here."

"Goddammit, Tony, you said he wouldn't hurt anyone!"

"I said he wouldn't hurt you," Tony replied as Pepper swooped in to distract the Hulk. "But I'm not so sure about me, anymore."

"Why is he so pissed?"

"I don't know! Why don't you come back and ask him?"

"I can't. I teleported to Stark Tower."

"Teleport back!" Tony shouted. The Hulk hit him, and he went spiraling to the opposite side of the island.

Al hung up. She knew what she had to do. She just hoped it would work. She walked over to the edge of the balcony, took a deep breath, and stepped off. The free fall was exhilarating, and Al wondered why she'd never taken up skydiving. She was rapidly approaching the ground and still wasn't frightened enough to teleport. Maybe she did have a death wish, after all. But if she failed to teleport, her friends might die, too.


	29. Chapter 29

Al was inches from the sidewalk when she suddenly found herself landing on the charred remains of her mattress in the bunker. Did I do this? she wondered, looking around the smoldering room. She heard a crash above her head and realized everyone was outside. She rushed to the surface and arrived just in time to see the Hulk knock Pepper into the side of a mountain.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Al asked, striding angrily to the Hulk. "Leave her alone. She's my friend."

The Hulk drew back his fist to hit Al, but she just glared at him. "Go ahead," she challenged him. "Do it!" The Hulk paused uncertainly. "Hurt me all you want. I'll heal. And if I don't, who cares?"

By now Tony had swooped down to help Pepper to her feet, but she pushed him away and went over to Al. She tried to pull Al away from the Hulk. "Al, don't."

But Al put up her hand. "Stay out of this," she ordered. "This is between us."

She turned back to the Hulk. "You know I'm right, don't you? I'm just a punching bag with feelings. I was made for guys like you."

The Hulk was perplexed by Al's lack of fear.

"Come on, hit me! Make my body hurt so I don't have to feel this." Al pounded her chest, and suddenly the Hulk understood. Al was talking about all the rage, grief, and shame that weighed on her heart like an anvil. He felt it, too, but he turned it outward while Al turned it inward. "Bruce was only half right," Al continued. "It's not what I think I deserve. It's what I know I deserve."

The Hulk suddenly remembered why he was angry, and it had nothing to with these people. They were his friends. He felt like he was shrinking, but it wasn't Bruce taking over. It was shame. "I'm sorry," he grumbled and walked away without changing.

Al thought about going after the Hulk but decided he needed time alone. Whatever it was that made him angry had also hurt him deeply.

Pepper said, "You're wearing the suit Reed gave you."

Al looked down. "Oh, yeah." It was strange how she could forget everything else when lives were at stake. "I guess I'm emitting a different frequency, now. That explains the fire in my room."

"How did you learn to control your ability?" Tony asked.

"I didn't," Al confessed.

"Then how did you manage to teleport back here?" Tony persisted.

Al said, "You don't want to know. Let's just say I'm ready to try antidepressants, now." She started walking back to the bunker, looking more and more withdrawn with each step, and the others knew she was changing back into Allison.


	30. Chapter 30

Allison, Pepper, and Tony climbed to the top of the bunker and looked down the hole Tony had blasted through the roof.

"I'll pay for that," Tony joked.

"It was built to withstand a gamma bomb," Allison said.

"I adjusted the frequency of the repulsor beam to realign the molecules," Tony explained. "Then it was just a matter of-"

"I know the science," Allison reminded him. "It's just that I thought this place was safe..."

"We can rebuild it," Tony said. "We can add reinforcements and update the technology."

Allison shook her head sadly. "It won't work."

"Sure it will," Tony insisted. "We just need to-"

"It won't work," Allison interrupted, "because I still won't feel safe."

Tony looked crestfallen.

"It's not your fault," Allison explained. "I didn't feel safe to begin with." She waved her hand dismissively at the bunker. "This was just an attempt to compensate." She headed to the entrance. "I'll take you down to the next level. The radiation shields should still be intact there."

The lower level of the bunker was still clean, and it was as luxurious as the upper level. Allison showed them to a new bedroom and pointed them toward the gym. "There's a sauna in there," she said. "You'll probably need it after being batted around the island... I'm sorry. I didn't expect him to-"

"None of us did," Pepper said. "I'm sure something unusual happened to set him off."

"What can happen on a desert island?" Tony asked.

But Allison knew Pepper was right. Something was wrong, very wrong. She'd seen it in the Hulk's eyes. "Try to get some rest," Allison said. "I'll go find Bruce...or the Hulk...or whoever."

Pepper said, "You should wear my suit in case he gets violent again."

Allison walked over to Pepper, stood toe-to-toe with her, and looked up. Pepper was nearly a foot taller than Allison. "I can roll up your clothes to make them fit," she said. "But I don't think that works with titanium alloy."

Pepper smiled and said, "Let me go with you, at least."

"I talked him down once, and I can do it again," Allison replied. "Besides, I heal fast." She headed for the exit.

"I wish you'd quit using that excuse," Tony called after her. But Allison ignored him and kept walking.


	31. Chapter 31

Allison headed straight for a crevice near the peak of the tallest mountain. It was her favorite spot because it offered a view of most of the island while protecting her back. She figured It would appeal to both Bruce and the Hulk, and she was right. The Hulk was there, and he watched as Allison slowly made her way up the path. He did nothing to stop her, but he didn't help her, either. When Allison finally arrived, breathless, she plopped down on the ground next to him and sat silently for several minutes.

The Hulk ignored Allison as long as he could, but her very presence grated on his nerves. He finally barked, "What?"

"Nothing. I thought you might be lonely."

"I want to be alone," he snarled.

"What we want isn't always good for us," Allison said. "Al wanted you to hit her."

Silence.

"And she jumped off a building...again."

More silence.

"If you ask me, she has a death wish."

"Shut up!" the Hulk snapped.

Allison sat quietly and waited, listening to the wind and the ocean. There were no other sounds on the island because there was no wildlife. She stared at the horizon, where the night sky met the ocean along a thin, ephemeral line. Then she watched the play of moonlight on the rocks below as the moon inched across the sky. She was willing to wait as long as it took.

Finally the Hulk turned to her and said softly, "Please...go."

"What happened?" Allison asked gently. She sensed that the time was right to ask.

The Hulk looked back at the ocean and said, "Banner is weak." Allison studied his face. The Hulk knew she was watching him, but he pretended not to notice. He waited until Allison turned her attention back to the ocean before he spoke again. "He let her touch him..."

Allison's stomach lurched, and she closed her eyes. She still didn't know what happened, exactly. But she knew it was sexual assault. She could tell by the Hulk's body language, by his shame and evasiveness... She clenched her jaw and waited for her stomach to settle. Then she said, "He didn't have a choice." She looked at the Hulk, but he turned away from her.

"Who did this?" Allison asked. "We can bring her to justice and stop her from doing it again."

"She's too strong," the Hulk answered. He jumped to his feet and started down the path. Allison tried to follow him, but he leaped away. She knew it would be impossible to catch up to him, so she went back to the bunker and tried to sleep.


	32. Chapter 32

Allison awoke after a few fitful hours and went to the upper level to assess the damage. She found Bruce wandering through the rubble with a dazed expression. "What happened?" he asked.

"You don't remember?"

Bruce shook his head.

"What about...before you changed?"

"No," Bruce admitted. "The last thing I remember is going to bed."

Allison looked relieved. "You're lucky," she said.

"Why? Did you have another nightmare?" Bruce asked.

"No."

"Were you attacked?"

"No... _You_ were."

"Me?" A flutter of anxiety swept over Bruce. "What happened?"

"He wouldn't tell me."

"Who wouldn't tell you? The big guy?"

Allison nodded.

"But you know something," Bruce said. "I can see it on your face."

Allison sighed. "Let it go, Bruce. You don't want to know."

"You can't tell me what I want."

"Maybe not," Allison said. "But you're the one repressing your memories."

"No, I'm not!" Bruce snapped.

"What do you mean?"

Bruce was confused, himself. "I don't know. It's like someone's been inside my mind."

Allison saw Bruce's chest heaving and said, "It's okay if you want to change."

"No! I don't want to change into _him_. Why would you say that?"

"I thought it might help..."

"Help what? Allison, you have got to tell me what's going on."

"I think the attack last night was sexual."

"What?" Bruce went numb. He fumbled to upright an overturned chair and sat in it. "Why do you think that?"

"The big guy said a woman 'touched' you, but I don't know who he was talking about or what she did."

Bruce laughed nervously. "He probably tapped into one of my memories of Betty," he said.

"Fond memories don't lead to this," Allison said, gesturing around the room.

"Then it must have been a nightmare," Bruce insisted.

Allison stared at him sadly.

"Look," Bruce continued, "just because you had a bad experience doesn't mean you should go looking for boogeymen around every corner."

Allison said nothing. She knew Bruce would have to reach his own conclusion.

"Nobody knows where we are," Bruce argued. "So how could..." He stopped mid-sentence, suddenly realizing why he felt like someone had been in his head. "You can't hide from a telepath," he said, and his shoulders dropped. He was beginning to accept the truth.

"I'm sorry," Allison said. "I thought we'd be safe here."

Bruce went pale as he suddenly remembered everything in excruciating detail. Everything, that is, except for Mercy's face and tell-tale hair. It was exactly the way Mercy wanted him to remember it. He looked at Allison with green eyes and shouted, "TranQuill, now!" He had dressed hurriedly when he got back to the bunker and forgot to put an auto injector in his pocket.

Allison didn't have a TranQuill. But she wasn't worried. She didn't have Al's penchant for danger, but she was confident she'd reflexively teleport if necessary. "It's okay," she said calmly. "Let him out."

Bruce didn't want to change. But his panic had reached the critical threshold, and he couldn't stop himself. The Hulk emerged, angry at Bruce, angry at himself, and most of all, angry at Mercy. He looked at Allison and saw Mercy instead, so he lunged at her. Allison teleported in an explosion that knocked the Hulk off his feet.


	33. Chapter 33

Tony and Pepper were awakened by the explosion, but Pepper's phone rang before they could go to investigate. It was Al calling from Stark Tower.

"Do not leave the lower level," Al said emphatically.

"Why not?" Pepper asked.

"He's green again."

Pepper ran her fingers through her hair. "What are you talking about? No, wait. I'll put you on speaker. Go ahead."

"You're going to hear a lot of commotion on the upper level. But don't go up there. It's the Hulk, and he's really pissed."

Tony rubbed his eyes. "The Hulk is always pissed," he said.

"No, I mean completely out of control, like last night."

"Again?" Pepper asked. "What happened?"

"Allison had a talk with him."

"A talk?" Tony exclaimed. "What did she say to him?"

"Never mind," Al said. "I'm teleporting back to calm him down."

"But you can't control your powers," Pepper reminded Al.

"That's okay," Al said breathlessly. "I found a workaround."

Tony suddenly realized what Al was doing. "Don't you dare jump off the balcony!" he yelled.

"You don't have to yell," Al said as she walked through the door still holding the phone. "I'm right here."

"You had already jumped, hadn't you?" Tony asked.

Al smiled impishly.

"As soon as this is over, you're seeing a shrink," Pepper declared.

"It worked, didn't it? Now, if you'll excuse me," Al said, "I need to have a talk with the big guy."

"Are you crazy?" Pepper asked.

"I don't know. You're the one who wants to take me to a shrink," Al teased.

"You know what she means," Tony said angrily. "We're safe down here. There's no need to talk to him right now. Let him calm down on his own."

"But this is my fault."

Tony said, "I thought Allison was the one talking to him when he turned."

"No, I mean it's my fault Bruce got attacked."

Tony was shocked. "Bruce was attacked?"

"Is that why he turned in the middle of the night?" Pepper asked?

Al nodded. "I think it's the same person who's been attacking me."

"Who is it?" Tony asked.

"Bruce doesn't remember, and the big guy isn't telling. All I know is that it's a female telepath."

"That's how she found us!" Pepper said, burying her head in her hand. "I'm such a fool! I thought the diner would be private. I didn't even consider telepathic eavesdropping."

Tony said, "I should have thought of it, too, but I didn't. She was probably tampering with our minds, making us forget."

"I'm sure she was," Al said. "That's why I kept feeling mind-raped."

The others looked at her incredulously. "What are you talking about?" Pepper asked.

Al was surprised they didn't understand, "You know, when someone's messing around in your mind against your will."

"You can feel that?" Tony asked.

"Can't everyone? It's been happening a lot lately."

Tony and Pepper looked at each other and shook their heads. "Maybe you're a low-level telepath," Pepper said.

"If I am," Al replied, "Bruce is, too. He's had the same feeling."

Tony said, "That would explain why he's been having so many incidents lately."

"I never should have contacted him," Al lamented. "None of this would have happened if not for for me."

"He'll be fine," Tony reassured her. "Just give him time to calm down."

"No, you don't understand!" Al insisted.

"What happened?" Pepper asked.

"I can't tell you." Al knew being raped was bad enough without gossip.

"We can't help him if we don't know what's wrong," Tony said.

"It's too personal," Al explained. "He needs to tell you himself."

"He can't tell us anything when he's like this," Tony persisted.

Al hesitated, but she knew Tony was right. "Bruce was raped last night."

Pepper covered her mouth. "Oh, God!"

"What?" Tony gasped. "How? I mean, how was the Hulk disabled?"

"Does it matter?" Al asked.

"No," Tony admitted.

Pepper regained her composure. "What do we do for him now?"

"I want to talk to him," Al said. "I don't have any answers, but he knows I understand."

"Give him some time to calm down first," Tony said. "You can't help him if he beats you senseless."

Al sighed. "You're right. But if he doesn't come back in a few hours, I'm going to him."


	34. Chapter 34

There was still no sign of Bruce or the Hulk by noon, so Allison grabbed a change of clothes and headed for her favorite spot. She stopped at the foot of the mountain and looked up. Bruce was sitting near the top, just as she expected, and she began the long trek toward him.

Bruce thought about changing into the Hulk and leaping away, but it seemed like too much effort. So he wrapped himself the best he could in the tattered remains of his clothes and watched Allison approach. When she arrived, she quietly handed him new clothes. Bruce swallowed hard and took them gratefully. When he finished dressing, he joined Allison, who was sitting on a rock and watching the waves. Neither of them spoke for a very long time.

Finally Bruce said, "I was celibate for years because of _him_."

Allison knew he was talking about the Hulk.

"I was afraid I'd change in the act and hurt the woman I love."

Allison winced at the thought.

Bruce sighed and looked at the sky. "But last night, when I needed to change, I couldn't." He tapped his chest and shrugged. "I had no emotion."

Allison said, "You were dissociating. It's a common reaction."

"It's a cruel joke," Bruce said bitterly. "I felt all the pain, but none of the emotion." He clenched his jaw as the memory swept over him again.

Allison waited patiently. She could tell Bruce was having a flashback.

When the flashback ended, he said, "I remember everything except her face."

"It's not too late for a medical exam," Allison said gently. "There might be evidence."

"No."

"I can fly you to this specialist. He's really good with-"

"I said no! I will not be poked and prodded like a science experiment!"

"Goddammit, Bruce! I thought you wanted to catch the bitch!"

"I do! Let me talk to Allison again." Bruce knew Al had taken over because Allison never cursed.

"No. You yelled at her."

"I didn't yell. I was just firm."

"She's not a science experiment."

"I didn't say she was." Bruce noticed Al flickering and suddenly understood. "You've had the exam, haven't you?"

Al nodded and let Allison return. "I'm not asking you to do anything I haven't done myself," Allison said softly. "The doctor I'm telling you about is familiar with meta human physiology. He's discrete, and he's good. I trust him, and that's saying a lot."

"I'll think about it."

"Don't take too long to decide," Allison warned Bruce. "Evidence can only be recovered for so long."

They sat quietly for a while.

Then Bruce said, "I can't go back and face the others. They'll want to know what's wrong, and I can't tell them."

"I already told them."

"You had no right!" Bruce snarled. He got up and started walking down the trail.

Allison ran to catch up with him. "They're your friends, Bruce. They were worried about you. I couldn't wait for you to tell them because you were on a rampage, and I had no idea when you were going to calm down." Bruce ignored her, so Allison got in front of him and stopped. "I don't think you heard me. _They're your friends._ That hasn't changed."

Bruce sighed and stared at Allison, waiting for her to move.

"It wasn't your fault," Allison said. "Nobody is blaming you. It just feels that way."

Bruce looked away. He'd been telling Allison the same thing for weeks. But it was much harder to believe about himself. At last he said, "Let's get this over with."

As they headed toward the bunker, Allison noticed that Bruce was limping. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"I'm fine," Bruce said, but he winced and slowed his pace.

"You're injured, aren't you?"

"No."

"If you are, you need-"

"I fine, I told you!" Bruce's tone made Allison cringe, so he softened his voice.

"Look, I admit I had some injuries last night. But I healed during the transformation."

They were arriving at the bunker entrance, so Allison decided to drop the subject for now.


	35. Chapter 35

When the doors to the lower level opened, Pepper was waiting for them. "I'm glad you're back! We were worried about you."

Bruce looked around and noticed that Tony was missing.

"Tony is tinkering around in the research wing," Pepper said. "You know he's not good at waiting. I'll tell him you're here."

"That's okay," Bruce said. "I'll find him later." He wasn't ready to face Tony yet. But he couldn't help wondering if Tony was avoiding him.

"Allison told me what happened," Pepper said. "I am so sorry. Is there anything I can do?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Bruce said firmly.

"I understand," Allison interrupted gently. "But you need to make some decisions. Do you want to stay here or go back to the mainland?"

"I'm _not_ staying here."

"Do you want a forensic exam?" Allison asked. She knew time was running out.

Bruce sighed. The last thing he wanted was someone inspecting his body for clues. But he had a bad feeling the attacker would keep returning if he did nothing. "I'll do whatever it takes to stop her," he said.

"Remember to take the clothes you were wearing. And don't shower," Allison told him. "It's a long flight, so we need to get started right away. I'll get the plane ready."

Bruce didn't see Tony until they boarded the plane, and he was glad Tony's face was hidden by armor. But Tony removed his suit after the radiation levels cleared, and they had to face each other.

"How are you doing?" Tony asked. His expression made Bruce feel pitied.

"I'm fine," Bruce lied. His throat hurt, reminding him of the strangulation, so he turned toward the window and pretended to watch the clouds. Neither of them spoke much for the rest of the five-hour flight.

Al stopped in Los Angeles to fuel the plane and let everyone stretch. "Don't take too long," she announced. "The doctor is in New Mexico, so we have another hour and a half left."

Tony was surprised. "I thought he was here in L.A."

But Bruce didn't mind. "It's been a while since I've been in New Mexico," he said.

The sun was setting by the time they arrived. "It's after office hours," Al explained as she led them into the clinic, "but the doctor has agreed to wait. I think you'll like him. Ah, here he is now. I'd like you to meet Dr. Donald Blake."

"Oh crap, it's Thor," Tony said.

Bruce stared at Thor in awkward silence.

"Wait a minute, you know each other?" Al asked.

"Thor is one of the Avengers," Pepper explained. "Donald Blake is his alter ego."*

Al squinted at Thor. "That's a really good disguise."

"It's not a disguise, exactly," Thor explained. "It's... Well, it's complicated. What can I do for you? It sounded urgent over the phone."

"I don't know," Al stammered. "I didn't realize you knew each other." She couldn't imagine having a friend do her rape exam and didn't expect Bruce to feel any different. "Bruce can explain... If he wants to... If not... You can talk about something else... I think we should go now."

Everyone left, and Bruce looked at Thor miserably.

Thor motioned Bruce to a chair and pulled up one for himself. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," Bruce said, flinching as he gingerly lowered himself into the chair. "Coming here was a mistake."

"Well, 'nothing' seems painful. Do you want me to refer you to someone else?"

"Yes."

"What kind of referral am I making?"

Bruce hesitated.

"I know we've had our disagreements," Thor said. "But what I do here is real. I keep returning to earth and taking up this persona because I want to help people. And I'm good at it, I might add."

Thor was arrogant, but so were a lot of human doctors. That didn't make him any less qualified. Bruce saw a gleam of compassion in Thor's eyes that reminded him of his own days practicing medicine in the slums, so he decided to tell Thor. "I need a rape kit."

Thor took a deep breath. "I'm sorry."

Bruce picked at a loose thread and hoped Thor would quit looking at him.

"I have a friend who can do the exam," Thor said. He left to make the arrangements. When he returned, he said, "The incidence of rape is much higher than average among superheroes. We're high profile targets with powerful enemies. But most rape among meta humans is never reported because-"

"I don't need a public service announcement," Bruce growled.

"I was raped by Moondragon," Thor said suddenly.**

"What?"

"She used telepathy to manipulate me," Thor explained, "which is no different than using a date-rape drug."

Bruce was stunned. "I'm sorry. I didn't know." After a long silence, he said, "My attacker was a telepath, too. She blocked her identity from my memory." Before long, he was telling Thor everything.

* * *

*In the Thor comics, Thor and Blake essentially trade bodies, and Blake practices medicine in New York. But the Thor movie implies that Thor merely took Blake's shirt and badge, and he is in New Mexico at the time.

**Based on a controversial Thor comic. The fact that fans still argue over defining the incident as rape speaks volumes about society's attitudes toward female-on-male rape.


	36. Chapter 36

Al and Pepper left the clinic to avoid embarrassing Bruce, so Tony was waiting by himself when Thor entered the lobby. "How is he?" Tony asked.

"I don't know. A colleague is doing the exam. And if I did know, I couldn't tell you."

Tony sighed and stared at the fish tank.

"I can't tell you about Bruce," Thor continued. "But I can answer general questions, if you have any."

"I don't even know where to begin," Tony admitted. "I keep wondering how this could have happened. But I know I wouldn't be asking if it happened to a woman."

"The body is a machine," Thor said. "It does what it's programmed to do, regardless of who flips the switch." He remembered his own response to Moondragon and the intense shame that followed. But unlike Bruce, he had to deal with it alone. "Bruce is lucky to have a friend like you who takes this seriously," Thor said as he took a seat across from Tony.

When Bruce finally emerged, he was barely able to move and looked worse than ever. Tony jumped up to help, but Bruce pushed him away. "Leave me alone! I'm fine," he said hoarsely.

Tony gave Thor a worried glance. "You don't look fine," he said to Bruce.

"There's nothing physically wrong with me," Bruce explained. "My injuries have all healed. But she planted something in my mind to keep me feeling the pain."

"Can it be removed?" Tony asked.

"Maybe," Bruce said. "But I don't want anyone messing with my head right now." The physical exam had been grueling enough. It was like being raped again.

"Did you get the evidence you needed?" Thor asked. "I know a lab that can process meta human DNA."

"There was a hair," Bruce answered. "It was purple."


	37. Chapter 37

Mercy savored the memory of the moment she crushed Bruce. She'd been inside his mind when it happened, and she could feel him resisting his own body, trying not to react. But biology won. And the adrenaline rush had been worse for Bruce than any pain Mercy could have inflicted. The guilt it caused was intense...and lasting. Bruce would never be able to forget the moment his body betrayed him. Mercy wouldn't let him.

Pain was was still Mercy's preferred mode of persuasion. But this new tactic held a lot of promise for difficult cases like Bruce. And when properly combined with pain, it was exquisite. Mercy had been able to hurt Bruce in humiliating ways that would put a normal man in the hospital. But thanks to the Hulk, he healed. It had been a rare opportunity for Mercy to indulge herself.

But Mercy's crowning achievement was the psychic suggestion she'd left in Bruce's mind. It would keep him feeling the pain in spite of healing, and the pain would remind him of the humiliation he'd suffered. The constant shame would eventually become too much for Bruce, and he'd gladly seek Mercy's help committing suicide.

The Voice of God erupted in Mercy's mind, startling her. _You have sinned!_

_I was just trying to convert Bruce,_ Mercy thought, trembling. _He needs to die, but he won't accept my help. I was trying to persuade him._

_Your fornication has left evidence, and with evidence, there cannot be faith. They will seek you now, but for the wrong reasons. Your mission to bring Allison into the fold has been jeopardized._

_I can still bring her to you,_ Mercy thought. _Give me another chance._

_You will get another chance,_ the Voice of God replied, _after you do penance._

Mercy's body was racked by searing pain, and she screamed.


	38. Chapter 38

Tony invited everyone to his Malibu home, but they were too tired for another flight. So they decided to stay at a hotel for the night and leave for Malibu in the morning. Since Allison and Bruce were both being stalked, it was agreed that Tony and Bruce would share one room while Pepper and Allison shared another.

As soon as they checked in Bruce took a shower so hot it turned his skin red, and he scrubbed himself raw. But it didn't help. He still felt dirty. Then, as he was getting dressed, it finally hit him: he was raped. It wasn't a metaphor. It wasn't a dream. And it didn't happen to someone else. It was real. It was his body. And he was never going to wake up. He vomited.

Tony could hear Bruce retching, and his heart sank. When Bruce emerged from the bathroom, he asked, "Are you okay?"

Bruce was still pale and shaky from throwing up. "No, I am not okay." He lowered himself onto one of the beds and gritted his teeth as the pain brought memories back to life. "As soon as I get this psychic implant removed, I'm going back to India."

"I think you're making a mistake," Tony said.

"How can helping people be a mistake?"

"If that's your reason for going, great. By all means, go. But I don't think that's your reason. I think you're running away."

"You can't run from a telepath," Bruce reminded Tony.

"But that's not what you're running from, is it?"

Bruce glared at Tony, but he knew Tony was right.

"You're trying to run away from the fact that you were raped. And it won't work."

Bruce hadn't been expecting Tony to use that word, and his stomach flipped. "Well, maybe I should try drinking my problems away, like you do."

Tony felt like he'd been slapped, and he was tempted to respond with angry denial. But he knew Bruce was trying to change the subject, so he simply said, "Maybe I do have a drinking problem. But we're talking about you."

"You should be glad to get rid of me."

"And lose the second greatest mind at Stark Industries?" Tony asked. He was implying, of course, that he was the smartest. It was part of a good-natured, ongoing rivalry between them.

The humor worked, if only for a moment, and Bruce fought back a smile.

"All I'm saying is don't rush into anything," Tony advised. "You're emotional right now, and it's clouding your judgment."

"Emotional? If I'd been emotional this wouldn't have happened."

"What are you talking about?"

"Never mind," Bruce said. "I'm tired, and I'm going to bed."

But Bruce had trouble falling asleep. Whenever he began to drift off, he awoke with a start. And when he finally did go to sleep, he had a nightmare and woke up shouting, "No!"

Tony was instantly awake and aiming his cast in Bruce's direction. "Who's there?" he demanded. He didn't see anyone else in the room, but he couldn't rule out the possibility of an invisible attacker.

"It was just a nightmare," Bruce replied.

Tony flipped the light on, and Bruce squinted at him from the other bed. "Do you want to talk about it?" Tony asked.

"No," Bruce said with a look of disgust on his face.

Tony shrugged and turned off the light. They both laid down again.

A few minutes later, Bruce said, "She attacked me in my sleep." He was staring at the ceiling and pretending to talk to himself. "She used telekinesis to hold me down so I couldn't fight. When I woke up, she was already choking me." He swallowed hard. "Do you know how the body reacts to suffocation?"

Tony was silent. He was too angry to speak.

"_She_ knew," Bruce continued. "And she used it to her advantage." He winced as he sat up. "It was a cowardly sneak attack, and I want revenge." He grabbed a TranQuill off the nightstand and popped off the safety cap. His eyes began to glow faintly, and he stabbed himself in the thigh.


	39. Chapter 39

Bruce awoke in pain and immediately remembered the rape. But now he had a headache, too, from the sedative. He looked around frantically to see how much damage the Hulk had done. But he had injected himself early in the transition and collapsed almost immediately, leaving the room-and hopefully Tony-intact. Tony was missing, though, so Bruce hurriedly replaced his tattered clothes and went across the hall.

"Is Tony all right?" Bruce asked as soon as Pepper opened the door.

"I'm fine," Tony said. He was sitting at the table with Allison, and they were busily perusing their tablets. "It's a good thing you injected yourself, though. I didn't see that one coming."

"That's because I usually fight it," Bruce explained. "But last night I didn't care."

Tony asked, "Was that hair dyed purple or natural?"

"Natural," Bruce replied, his face burning with shame. It had to be natural because it was a pubic hair. But he wasn't about to tell Tony that.

"Then I think I found the attacker," Tony said, handing Bruce his tablet. "We'll need DNA confirmation, of course. But there aren't many meta humans with naturally purple hair, and the criminal profile fits."

When Bruce looked at the photo, he had a flashback and heard Mercy's voice inside his head saying,_You want to die, now...don't you?_

"No!" Bruce shouted before he could stop himself.

"It's not her?" Tony asked.

"I don't know," Bruce said, handing the tablet back to Tony. "I still don't remember her face."

Tony was puzzled. "Then why did you say no?"

Instead of answering, Bruce took a seat at the table and rested his head in his hands. The headache distracted him from other, more embarrassing pain, at least.

Allison said, "You were having a flashback, weren't you?"

Bruce looked up and sighed wearily. "She asked if I wanted to die."

Tony became very interested. "That fits the Angel of Mercy perfectly!" He swiped to another screen on his tablet and handed it back to Bruce. "Read her profile. Don't you remember any of this?"

Abigail Wright had been employed at Gamma Base when she was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. Her supervisor recommended that she try an experimental gamma radiation treatment. The treatment saved her life, but it also turned her into an incredibly powerful-and delusional-being. Over the years she had "helped" dozens of people die, usually after a long and painful session of "persuasion." But she always evaded capture.

"It says here that we've fought on several occasions," Bruce said. "But I don't remember any of it." He scrolled down and continued reading. Finally he looked up and said, "She doesn't have a record of rape."

"Not in the database," Tony said. "But victims of female perpetrators are often hesitant to report the crime. And when they do, it's not taken as seriously as it should be." He'd learned a lot from Thor in the waiting room.

"If you think about it," Allison added, "she has a long history of telepathic rape, so it's not surprising that she would escalate to physical rape."

"She probably considers it another method of torture," Tony explained.

"Now that she's gone," Allison said, "we can fortify our defenses against psychic attack."

"What do you mean, she's gone?" Bruce asked.

"You can't tell because she left a psychic imprint in your mind," Allison answered. "But she's definitely gone."

Pepper had been listening and joined them at the table. "How can you tell she's gone?"

Allison was perplexed. "You mean, you don't feel that...emptiness, that peace?"

"No," Pepper said, and Tony shook his head.

"Most people aren't as sensitive as we are," Bruce explained. "It's hard for a telepath to hide activity from someone with multiple personalities. But sensing activity and stopping it are entirely different."

"Was Thor able to recommend a telepathic healer?" Pepper asked.

"Yes," Bruce replied. "I'm going to see her before we leave. She works as a psychiatrist in the same clinic as Thor."

Pepper gave Allison a sharp look. Allison knew what it meant and sighed. "Give me her number," Allison said to Bruce. "I'll see if she can fit me in, too. I'm going to try antidepressants."

"What changed your mind?" Bruce asked.

Allison didn't respond, so Tony said, "She's been jumping off buildings again."

"What?!" Bruce looked to Allison for an explanation. He couldn't remember what she'd told the Hulk.

Allison said, "Actually, it was Al who jumped..."

"Twice," Tony added emphatically. "In one day!" He was not going to let Allison squirm out of this one.

"It was the only way she could scare herself into teleporting," Allison said defensively.

"And?" Tony pressed.

"She didn't teleport until she was inches from the ground..."

"Because?" Tony was like a parent trying to drag the truth from an unruly child.

"Al has a death wish," Allison finally admitted. "But I don't."


	40. Chapter 40

Cynthia Regis was one of many meta humans who avoided the superhero limelight. Instead, she put her skills to use in a quiet but successful career as a psychiatrist. Most of her patients, like Thor's, were average humans. But she was always available to help meta humans in need. Bruce was sitting across from her now, trying to explain his problem to her, or rather, trying not to explain.

"Why won't you just read my mind?" Bruce asked yet again. He did this every time he got to a point in the story that embarrassed him.

Cynthia was used to it. No one came to her with problems that were easy to discuss. So she patiently repeated the same answer she'd given every other time. "You need to trust me before I enter your mind, and I need to know what I'm going into."

Bruce looked drained. He'd already told Cynthia about his split personality as well as the rape. But now she wanted to know about his injuries, too, which were mostly genital. He closed his eyes and pretended he was reading the description from a medical textbook.

Cynthia noticed that Bruce was referring to himself as "the patient" but decided not to mention it. "Those are some serious injuries," she observed. "Anyone else would be in the hospital."

Bruce shrugged. "Like I said, the big guy has a healing factor."

"He didn't protect you from the rape, but he healed you after the fact. Doesn't that make you angry?"

"No."

Cynthia waited quietly. She knew Bruce had more to say.

"It's my fault he didn't appear sooner. He needs strong emotion, but I couldn't feel anything."

Cynthia said, "Emotional numbness is common with trauma."

"I wasn't completely numb, though. I could still feel shame."

"Why shame?" Cynthia asked.

Bruce was silent for a very long time. Finally he said, "Because I was turned on..." He looked at Cynthia angrily. "What's the matter with me?"

"If I hit you with a hammer, would it hurt?" Cynthia asked.

"Of course it would," Bruce replied.

"Could you will the pain away?"

"No."

"So why do you think you can will away pleasure? Your body's reaction has nothing to do with consent."

"I understand the physiology," Bruce said, "but I still feel guilty. Why do I feel guilty if I didn't do anything wrong?"

"Emotions don't always reflect reality," Cynthia explained. "Sometimes you just have to feel the guilt and know it's not justified."

Bruce didn't like Cynthia's answer, but he knew she was right.

"Are you ready to let me into your mind?" Cynthia asked. "I just want to look at your mindscape and assess the situation. Then we can talk about what to do."  
Bruce consented, but as soon as Cynthia began to probe the edges of his mind he became defensive.

Cynthia pulled away. "That's okay," she said. "Take a minute to relax, and let me know when you're ready."

Bruce took several deep breaths and nodded. But when Cynthia approached his mind again, he tensed.

Cynthia shook her head sadly. "You're not ready," she said. "You're putting up blocks."

"How can I put up blocks? I'm not telepathic."

"Everyone has telepathic ability," Cynthia explained. "In most people it's like a muscle that's atrophied, but even a weak muscle can develop reflexes. In your case, the recent trauma is causing you to reflexively put up barriers whenever I approach your mind. I could easily break through those barriers. But that would traumatize you more and defeat the purpose of treatment."

"You can't leave me like this! I'm in pain."

"I'm sorry. I can't enter your mind right now," Cynthia said. "It would be like getting raped again."

"But with this pain it's like the rape never ended. You've got to do something. I can't live like this."

"I can put a protective barrier around your mind to prevent further violation. And I can prescribe medication for anxiety and depression. That will give your mind a chance to rest and heal on its own. We can try again in a couple of weeks. You might be ready by then."

When Bruce came back to the waiting room he was still limping, and the others knew what that meant.

"I'm sorry," Pepper said.

"Without the healing factor I would have needed surgery," Bruce admitted, "and the recovery would have been long and painful. So I shouldn't complain too much." He eased into one of the chairs. "What bothers me most is not knowing when-or if-this will end."

Tony winced. If the injuries had been that bad, the pain must be excruciating. He was surprised Bruce was walking at all. "There's got to be something they can do," he insisted.

"I can come back in a couple of weeks," Bruce said. He explained what Cynthia had told him.

Allison sighed. Two weeks of pain could feel like an eternity, especially if the pain was a constant reminder of rape... She heard her name and looked up. Cynthia was beckoning her.


	41. Chapter 41

"So, why are you here?" Cynthia asked Allison once they were settled in her office.

In a corner of Allison's mind, Al said, _She ought to know. She's a telepath._

_Why don't __**you**__ tell her that?_ Allison asked Al.

_You're the one who wanted to come here_, Al replied. _I don't need a shrink._

"I won't read your mind until I have permission," Cynthia interrupted. "And your other personality isn't obligated to talk to me."

"What? How do you know about Al?"

"You were projecting your argument into my mind," Cynthia explained.

"No I wasn't!"

"You don't know you're doing it, do you?" Cynthia asked.

"Doing what?"

_This_. Allison could hear Cynthia's voice saying the word inside her mind.

"What was that?" Allison asked.

_A thought projection_, Cynthia answered in Allison's mind. Then she said out loud, "That's what you were doing to me."

"But that's not possible," Allison argued. "I'm not telepathic. I'd know."

"Not necessarily," Cynthia said. "You could be repressing your abilities."

"Why would I do that?" Allison asked. "If I had telepathy, believe me, I'd use it." Allison already blamed herself for Bruce's rape because she led Mercy to him. And now, one day too late, she was discovering a power that might have saved him. It was just like her own rape.

"It's not your fault Bruce was raped. And it's not your fault you were raped. Bad things happen, even to people with powers."

"Get out of my head!"

"I'm not in your head. You're projecting into mine," Cynthia said patiently. "I usually wait until we've had more time to talk and build trust, but under the circumstances I think it would be helpful if I entered your mind now. May I? You can ask me to leave at any time."

Inside Allison's mind, Al said, _This is a bad idea..._

_Dr. Blake recommended her,_ Allison reminded Al. _And we trust him._

_But he lied to us about his identity_, Al said.

_He's a superhero!_ Allison responded in exasperation. _Most of them have secret identities... And remember, he was the only one who treated us well when we were raped._ Most average people thought meta humans were too powerful to be raped, and it showed in the way they handled Allison's case.

Al relented. _All right, you can let her in._

"This is going to feel very different from the thought projection I demonstrated earlier," Cynthia explained. "I'm going to send an avatar of myself into your mindscape." The mindscape was a dream-like realm representing a person's psyche. Cynthia rarely did more than look at a mindscape during her first session with a client. But more activity seemed warranted with Allison because of her telepathic ability. "I may change the appearance of my avatar from time to time to keep my own mind from being traumatized by your memories. But I won't do anything else without your consent-unless, of course, you attempt to harm yourself or others."

Allison agreed, and soon Cynthia was in her mind. It was dark, and the land was scorched and desolate. There was a crypt in the distance and Allison was sitting on the ground in front of it, leaning against the door. She was wearing a torn and stained white dress. Al was wearing skin-tight black leather and sulking on the roof.

When Cynthia arrived Al said, "You two can go ahead and do your touchy-feely crap without me. But remember, I'm watching." She pointed at Cynthia. "You do anything out of line, and I'll kick your ass-in here and in reality. Got it?"

Cynthia wasn't intimidated, but she didn't argue with Al. She sat on the ground next to Allison and asked, "When was the last time you saw daylight?" The symbolism in every mind was different, but darkness usually represented depression.

"The seventh of September," Allison replied. "But it's always been overcast."

A flash of lightning filled the sky, and Cynthia could see Allison being raped in a huge panoramic display against the clouds. Allison was having a flashback.

"Was that the day of the rape?" Cynthia asked.

Allison nodded.

"When did the electrical storm begin?"

Allison didn't reply, but another flash of lightning revealed her as a small child strapped to an exam table, naked. Judging from Allison's age in the flashback, she'd had PTSD from the age of four-if not earlier.

"Is my presence making the storm worse?" Cynthia asked.

Allison nodded.

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No! Please don't go. There are so many things I've never been able to tell anyone." Allison looked up at Al. "Can I show her?"

Al rolled her eyes. "Go ahead." A cloak appeared in her hands. She put it on and pulled the hood over her head.

Allison took Cynthia to an open field, laid down, and patted the barren ground next to her. When Cynthia joined her, Allison pointed to the night sky. A storm was rolling in, spectacular and frightening, and static electricity filled the air. Allison's memories played out in terrifying, graphic detail against the clouds, and it began to rain in hard, stinging torrents. After the storm had passed Allison turned her head to look at Cynthia, but Cynthia had become stone. Allison panicked.

Al swooped down from nowhere, her cloak fluttering behind her like bat wings, and knelt on Allison's chest before she could sit up. "You idiot!" she screamed, punching Allison. "I told you this was a bad idea!"

Cynthia turned to flesh again and sat up. "I warned you I might change to protect myself," she reminded them. "Do you always treat Allison like that?"

"Of course I do," Al replied. "She's too stupid to learn any other way!"

"That's how _you_ learned, isn't it?" Cynthia asked. "I saw your birth in the storm. You're the personality who formed when Jimmy punished the others for rebelling. You saw them die."

Al started beating Allison. "You stupid bitch! You were only supposed to show her your past, not mine."

Cynthia pulled Al away from Allison.

"Let me go!" Al shouted. "You promised not to intervene."

Cynthia said, "There's an exception for self harm."

"But this isn't harm! We're just avatars. Our body is fine."

"It's mental harm, and I can't allow it. Now will you control yourself, or do I have to sedate you?"

Al laughed. "You can't sedate me while you're in here."

Cynthia whispered something in Al's ear, and Al immediately collapsed.

Allison had gotten up and was wiping the blood from her lip. "That was amazing! Can you teach me how to do that?"

"I'd rather not," Cynthia admitted. "Therapy works better if you're both in agreement. Let's try antidepressants first. That should calm Al down and make you more assertive, giving the two of you a more balanced relationship."

"Do we have to integrate?" Allison asked. "I'm not sure I want to become her."

"No, you don't have to integrate," Cynthia reassured her. "But you can always change your mind later, if you both agree. Now, what do you want to work on?"

"I need to do something about this depression before Al gets us both killed."

"Is she suicidal?" Cynthia asked.

"No, but she takes a lot of risks."

"We can work on that. Is there anything else?"

Allison became even more bashful than usual. "I want to learn about my telepathy," she confessed. "Is that bad?"

"I don't think it's bad," Cynthia replied. "Why would it be bad?"

"I don't know... It just seems...greedy."

"How would it be greedy?"

There was a loud clap of thunder. The sky turned red, and Jimmy's face appeared in the clouds. He reached down with a giant hand, like a god, and placed a wrapped gift in front of Allison. "Go ahead," his voice rumbled around them, "guess what it is."

A child-like voice whispered through the wind, "No Daddy, I don't like this game."

"Guess!" Jimmy shouted, and the earth began to tremble.

The ground split beneath them, and Allison and Cynthia fell into the abyss, landing in a pit of snakes surrounded by flames. Allison was pale and trembling. "What's happening?" she asked Cynthia.

"You're remembering what it was like inside your father's mind," Cynthia explained softly. She knew it was Jimmy's mind because the landscape fit everything she'd seen of him in the storm.

"I've never been in his mind," Allison said, but it sounded like a plea more than a protest.

"Yes, you have. But you repressed the memory. That's why it's underground."

In the wall of flames, Allison could see Jimmy wrapping a chemistry set. She looked to her left and saw what would happen if she gave the wrong answer. Jimmy was beating her with a belt. "You should have powers by now!" he said. "You're resisting treatment, so we'll have to start over from the beginning." He strapped her to the exam table and picked up one of the instruments.

Allison looked to her right and saw what would happen if she answered correctly. Jimmy was still beating her, but this time he said, "You selfish little bitch! You don't love me. You just want gifts. But you're going to learn how to love me." He strapped her to the exam table again, but this time he unzipped his pants.

Allison was horrified. She wanted out of Jimmy's mind. She looked behind her at the only wall that wasn't on fire. Far above her head was a hole just big enough to crawl through. She scrambled toward it, but the snakes wrapped around her and pulled her back. "Help me!" she screamed.

Cynthia turned into a pixie, just a few inches tall, and hovered near Allison's face. "This is a memory, so I can't change it," she said sadly. "But you know you're going to survive. And I'll be with you this time. I'll help you get through it."

Jimmy's thoughts crackled in the fire around them. "So, you're trying to hide inside my mind? What a clever little girl you are. But it won't work."

The snakes held Allison down, and the flames parted so she could see herself through Jimmy's eyes. She looked small and frail, standing there with the package in her hands. Jimmy grabbed her and raped her while she watched helplessly from inside his mind. When it was over he ejected Allison from his mind, and she found herself back in her own mindscape, bruised, bleeding, and covered with dirt. She fell to her hands and knees and vomited.

Cynthia turned into a much larger version of herself and scooped Allison up, cradling her like a child. She held Allison for a very long time, rocking her gently and reassuring her.

When Allison was finally able to speak again, she said, "I'm ready, now."

Cynthia understood. She put Allison down and returned to normal size.

The package was still on the ground where Jimmy had placed it. Allison walked over to it and untied the bow. She lifted the lid, and a blast of brilliant light bathed her face. This was the power she'd been repressing?


	42. Chapter 42

Mercy was trapped in her own private hell, continuously burning without being consumed. The fire wasn't real. It was a psychic projection. But the pain was real. And it was so intense that it kept Mercy from teleporting or running away. She had stopped screaming long ago and was reduced to incoherent babbling. But the Voice of God would not relent.

In a remote lab, the man behind the Voice stretched and yawned. He was monitoring Mercy telepathically, and her babbling bored him. Even when she was coherent, her thoughts were tedious and dull. The angel-of-mercy delusion lacked creativity and passion, but he had to tolerate it until Mercy brought Allison to him. Then he'd let Mercy go back to her childish little game. It was a shame, really. All that power wasted.

He'd been disappointed with Mercy from the moment he created her. But it was his own fault, really, for using a defective subject. Abigail was too old for the project when she came to him, and she had a brain tumor. But he'd been eager to test his new accelerated protocol, and he needed an expendable subject, one that didn't cost millions of dollars and years of research.

He hadn't expected Abigail to survive, so he skipped important steps in her conditioning, steps that would have made her more compliant, or at the very least, more interesting. Without proper conditioning, Mercy was unreliable. She was obsessed with her own delusional goals and easily distracted from her assignment. But she was in remedial training now.

The scientist noticed that Mercy had stopped babbling, so he probed her mind to make sure she was still conscious. She was. He checked his schedule. She was breaking too soon. It was time to remind her of her mission and activate a different pain center in her brain. Remedial training would take more sessions than he expected.

When Allison returned from talking to Cynthia, she looked dazed and haggard. But she also seemed unusually relaxed. She sank into a chair and stared blankly at the fish tank.

"Are you okay?" Pepper asked.

Allison turned mechanically to look at her. "I'm fine," she said. She decided not to burden the others with the latest development. Bruce needed them more than she did, now.

Cynthia called Tony's name.

"Me? I didn't schedule an appointment," Tony said.

"No, I did," Pepper confessed.

"But I'm fine!" Tony declared defensively.

"We _all_ need telepathic shields," Pepper reminded him. "I'm going next."

"She doesn't have to go inside your mind to do it," Bruce added with irritation.

"Fine, I'm going!" Tony said as he stood up.

What Pepper didn't know, what none of them knew, was that there was no rush to get telepathic barriers. Mercy was going to be indisposed for some time to come.


	43. Chapter 43

Once the psychic shields were in place, the group flew to Tony's mansion in Malibu. No one spoke much during the flight. Conversation seemed trivial to Tony and Pepper in light of recent events, and Bruce spent most of the time reclining with his eyes closed because of his headache. Meanwhile, Allison was lost in her own thoughts.

When they arrived in Malibu Allison said, "I've given this a lot of consideration, and I've decided to go back to the island...alone. I'm not very good at farewells, so it's better if I leave now-"

"Not you, too!" Tony interrupted. He was getting annoyed.

"What do you mean?" Allison asked.

"I'm going back to India after I get the imprint removed," Bruce explained.

Tony said, "I'm telling you the same thing I told Bruce. You're running away from your problems, and it's a mistake."

"I'm not running away," Allison said. She turned to Bruce. "I'm doing it to protect you. This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't led Mercy to you."

Bruce took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "You don't know that," he said. "She might have been attacking you because of me."

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Tony said. "Will you two quit trying to assume blame? Mercy is the one at fault, here. No one else."

"Why don't you both wait until things have settled down before you make a decision?" Pepper asked.

Tony gestured vehemently at Bruce. "That's what I said last night, isn't it?"

Bruce sighed and tilted his head.

"Then it's settled," Tony declared. "You're both staying here until everything is worked out. Now get your bags, and I'll show you to your rooms."

They were unpacking when Al "woke up" and took control. "Where the fuck am I?"

Pepper finished putting some shirts in a drawer and closed it. "You don't remember? You're at Tony's house in Malibu... Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" Al said gruffly. This was what it had been like for her before she and Allison started sharing memories. She would wake up in all kinds of awkward situations with no recollection of how she got there, much like Bruce after an incident with the Hulk. She looked around the room and saw that there were two beds. Her suitcase was on one, and Pepper's was on the other. "What is this shit?" she asked, pointing at the beds. "Are we roommates now?"

"Since the attacks have been occurring while everyone is asleep, we decided to share rooms. Bruce and Tony are in another room. If you want to stay with Bruce instead, that's okay with me."

"Oh hell no!" Al said. They already tried that arrangement the night before Tony's surgery. Allison had stumbled out of the bedroom the next morning, still groggy, to find Bruce sleeping on the couch. He looked so much like Jimmy that it startled her, and she teleported. It had been awkward and embarrassing when she was teleporting naked, but now that she was producing explosions it was downright dangerous. "Wait a minute," Al said. "What if I have a nightmare and teleport? I might hurt you in the explosion."

"You told me not to worry about that. You said Cynthia was helping you control your powers." Pepper looked worried. "Don't you remember any of this?"

"No, I was...unconscious."

Pepper said, "I don't understand."

"I don't want to talk about it," Al said. She was embarrassed to admit that Cynthia had gotten the best of her. And she didn't like the fact that Allison was keeping secrets. She was so angry with Allison that she kept control of the body for the rest of the day.

That night, Al woke up screaming, "Help me!"

Pepper grabbed the repulsor gun from under her pillow and turned on the light. "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I just had the strangest nightmare." Pepper flinched.

"About Jimmy?"

"No, I dreamed I was in a snake pit. I'm not afraid of snakes, but I was really scared in my dream."

"At least you didn't teleport this time," Pepper observed.

"That's because Cynthia appeared to me as a fairy and told me I was dreaming."

"That must be how she's helping you control your powers."

"Well, I don't like it. Allison should have consulted me before agreeing to this." Al flipped the light off and plopped back in bed. "I hate fairies."

When Al drifted back to sleep, she went searching for Allison in their mindscape. She found Allison keeping vigil at the crypt, as usual, and hauled her to her feet. "What the hell did you do?" she demanded, slamming Allison against the stone wall.

"What are you talking about?" Allison asked.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Al shouted, slapping Allison. "You let Cynthia fuck with us! She's in my dreams."

"Oh, that," Allison said. "That's not really Cynthia. It's her echo. It's like a sticky note reminding us not to teleport during nightmares."

"I don't care what it is. I want it out of my head!"

"It's just a training device. She'll remove it in a few weeks."

"Yeah? What else did she do?" Allison was silent. Al slapped her again and made her nose bleed. "I know she did something else. I've never had nightmares about snakes before."

Allison swallowed hard. "You had a dream about snakes?" She went pale.

"Yeah, I was in a pit of them. What the fuck did Cynthia do?"

"She helped me face a repressed memory..."

"What the hell was it about?"

Allison said, "You don't want to know."

Al drew back her fist. "Tell me, or I'll beat it out of you."

Allison was surprisingly calm. "You'll have to beat me, then, because I'm not going to tell you before you're ready."

Al punched the wall next to Allison's head, chipping the stone. She was very powerful within the mindscape. Allison cringed but remained silent, which infuriated Al. Al pounded away at her, and still she wouldn't talk. Al didn't stop until Allison was a bloody mess on the verge of collapse."Is it really that bad?" she asked, letting Allison slide down the wall and sit on the ground.

Allison hugged her knees to her chest and nodded.

"Shit." Al dropped down beside her. She couldn't imagine anything worse than the torture she endured.

Allison said, "I need you to be strong for Bruce right now. Let me deal with this alone, and I'll tell you what happened after things have settled down."

Al said, "I'm sorry I hit you."

Allison turned to looked at her in amazement. Al rarely apologized for anything. "They're just psychological wounds," she said.

"But Cynthia was right. It's still harmful, and I need to stop."

"She gave us a prescription to help with mood swings," Allison said cautiously. "It should help your temper." She tensed, waiting for Al to hit her again.

But Al just nodded. "Let's take it."

"Really?"

Al shrugged. "I don't want to be angry all the time, but it's the only thing I know."

Allison relaxed. "The bottle is in the medicine cabinet, and the directions are on the label. Be sure to take it even when I'm not around."

Al panicked. "Where are you going?" She wouldn't admit it, but she didn't want to be left alone.

"I'm not dying," Allison reassured her. "I just thought I'd let you have control of the body for a while so I can work through some things."


	44. Chapter 44

Al slept later than usual, and Pepper was already gone by the time she woke up. But she found Tony in the workshop. "Where's Bruce?" she asked.

"Still sleeping. He had a rough night."

"Nightmares?" Tony nodded. Al sighed. Bruce would probably have nightmares for a long time to come.

"What are you building?" she asked.

"A containment device that prevents teleportation."

"For Mercy?"

"She has to be brought to justice," Tony said.

"Good luck with that," Bruce said morosely. He had just arrived and was standing in the doorway.

"It's going to work," Tony replied confidently. "I just need to figure out a few of the details."

"Oh, I know you can build it," Bruce said. "But what court is going to convict her?"

"My island is in U.S. territory," Al answered. "So once the DNA results confirm-"

"Where's the proof of force?" Bruce interrupted.

"The injuries..." Al began, but she trailed off. Even a minute injury, such as a bruise in a particular location, could be used as evidence of rape-for average humans. But meta humans like Bruce and Al healed so quickly that all trace of injury was gone long before it could be documented by authorities. That was why Al's own attacker was still free. The justice system was not equipped to deal with meta humans, as perpetrators or victims. "Aw, shit! I'm sorry..."

Bruce didn't want to talk about the rape anymore, so he limped over to the containment device and studied it carefully.

But Tony wasn't willing to drop the subject. "What about the telepathic implant?"

"You can't 'bag and tag' psychic evidence," Bruce reminded him. "You need expert testimony, and testimony is unreliable." He knew that from personal experience. As a child, he was supposed to testify against his father. But he refused at the last minute because he feared going to hell. As a result, his father was never convicted for his mother's murder. Bruce tried to distract himself from the memory by adjusting a wire in the control panel.

"Was there blood?" Tony asked. He was trying to be sensitive, but there was no delicate way to ask. "That would prove injury..."

Bruce didn't answer. He didn't even look up from his work. But he turned white as he remembered all the ways Mercy hurt him. Shape-shifting was one of her powers...

Al said, "Bruce?"

"I heard the question!" Bruce snapped. "But I don't want to answer."

"I was just worried about you," Al said. "You look pale."

Bruce clenched his jaw. He didn't like people fussing over him even on a good day. But today it seemed especially creepy and condescending. "I'm fine," he said emphatically to Al. Then he glared at Tony. "And yes, there was blood." More blood than he wanted to admit. "But I've been thinking this over, and I don't want to press charges."

Tony said, "You can't let her get away with it."

"Imagine what would happen if my enemies found out I can't transform while...while being raped..." Bruce didn't need to say more.

"All right, then," Tony said. "We'll go after her for murder instead."

"She has been connected to a lot of deaths," Al agreed. "But is there enough evidence for a conviction? She can use telekinesis to kill her victims from miles away." Al rubbed her arm where Mercy had sliced it open. The wound was gone, but the memory was still vivid.

"She _can_ kill from a distance," Bruce said ruefully. "But she doesn't. She likes to keep it personal."

"All right, then," Tony said "you two go through the case files for evidence and see if you can locate her base of operations. I'll finish building this cell. Then we can work on a plan to capture her."

"Will it be too upsetting to read the files?" Al asked Bruce. She remembered the flashback he had just looking at Mercy's picture.

"I'm not a pansy!" Bruce snarled.

"I didn't say you were!" Al retorted. "It's perfectly normal to have flashbacks after something like this."

"You don't have to tell me that," Bruce said. "I already know about trauma. I grew up with it, remember?"

"But this is different," Al began.

"No. It isn't!" Bruce interrupted. Since the rape he'd been remembering more about his childhood. Brian, like Mercy, had no qualms against using sexual assault to humiliate him. And too many beatings ended in humiliation.

"I was going to say it's different because it's more recent," Al explained.

Bruce glanced furtively at Tony, who had obviously understood the implication of his words, and he suddenly felt emasculated. "I need to be alone," he announced abruptly and left.

Tony started to go after Bruce, but Al stopped him. "He'll come back when he's ready," she said.

"Did you see the way he looked at me?" Tony asked. "He needed me to say something, and I didn't."

"What could you possibly say to make this better?" Al asked. "Just be there for him when he decides to come back."

Tony knew Al was right. This was something he couldn't fix, and it frustrated him. So he shifted his attention to something he _could_ fix-the containment device. He examined the wiring and realized he'd made a very obvious mistake. But Bruce had corrected it without saying a word. He smiled and turned to Al, but she was already engrossed in a computer.


	45. Chapter 45

Bruce stayed on the beach all day and didn't return until well into the night, when he was sure everyone would be asleep. But Tony turned on the light as soon as he entered the room and said, "You finally came back! I was getting worried about you."

Bruce rolled his eyes. No one ever worried about him before the rape. Why should they? He could turn into the Hulk. But now that he had failed to transform at the critical moment, they were never going to let him live it down. "You won't have to babysit me much longer," he declared grumpily. "If Cynthia won't remove this implant on the next visit, I'll find someone who will. Then I'm going back to India."

"If that's what you really want to do, I won't try to stop you," Tony said. He'd finally realized that letting Bruce go was the only way to save their friendship. Bruce had already made it clear that Tony reminded him of his father. And since the assault, their friendship had become even more strained. Bruce was timid and resentful around Tony now, like a child trying to appease a tyrannical parent. And Bruce couldn't recover from the rape as long as he continued to feel threatened.

Bruce's gaze came to rest on the empty decanter next to Tony's bed. Tony had been drinking more lately, and Bruce knew it was because of him. When they first met, Tony had been excited to find someone who could keep up with him intellectually. But Bruce's personal problems were starting to wear on Tony, especially since the attack. Tony acted as if he had to protect Bruce around the clock now, like the parent of a newborn. And the never-ending responsibility was taking its toll.

They went to bed without saying another word, each convinced he was doing the best thing for the other, and both miserable. In the early hours of the morning Bruce woke up shouting, and Tony responded immediately. "It was just another nightmare," Bruce said in irritation.

Tony flopped back in his bed wearily without saying anything. He had learned by now that Bruce didn't like being questioned about his dreams, and it was better to ignore him entirely.

Bruce got a glass of water and waited for his heart to stop pounding. He hated this sleeping arrangement because it implied that he was too weak to defend himself, and it meant he could no longer hide the embarrassing frequency of his nightmares from Tony. Bruce only agreed to this ridiculous set-up because Allison needed protection, and she wouldn't participate unless he did.

In the room across the hall, Al had been sleeping fitfully, dreaming about snakes, when she heard Bruce cry out. It was a muffled sound, and Pepper slept through it. But Al was hyper-vigilant and woke at the slightest disturbance. She sat alone in the dark, her heart racing, and listened for signs of trouble. Nothing... Bruce was having another nightmare.

Al laid down again and tried to go back to sleep, but she could still hear voices. At first she thought Tony and Bruce were talking, but when she listened carefully, she realized these were strangers. If she concentrated, she could make out what they were saying. It was small talk, mostly, and she figured Bruce had turned on a radio to help him get back to sleep. After listening to the chatter for several minutes, she decided to ask Bruce to turn the radio down. But just as she was getting up, she heard the door across the hall open. She peeked out and saw Bruce leaving. He had apparently given up on sleep, since he was already dressed for the day. "Hey, Bruce," she whispered. "Could you turn off the radio before you leave?"

Bruce spun around and gave Al a puzzled look. "What radio?"

"You don't have a radio on in your room?"

Bruce frowned. "No."

"Then where are those voices coming from?"

"What voices?"

"Don't you hear them?" Al asked.

"I don't hear anything," Bruce insisted.

Al stood quietly for a moment, listening. "One of them is singing, and other is worried about...salt?" It seemed like an odd concern, but that's what she heard.

"Do you have a history of hallucinations?" Bruce asked without the slightest hint of humor or insult. Mental illness was common in the Banner family and had to be taken seriously.

If anyone else had asked the question, Al would have responded with anger. But she knew Bruce was truly concerned. "No," she replied frankly.

"Then we'd better do some medical tests to rule out tumors and other organic causes."

Al wasn't afraid of death, but she did fear dying slowly in a hospital, surrounded by medical instruments that reminded her of Jimmy. "You don't think that's what it is, do you? I can heal from virtually anything."

"It's more likely that you're developing a new power," Bruce admitted. "But don't you want to know for sure?"

Al thought about it. If she knew she were dying, she might be able to avoid the inevitable decline with a sky-diving "accident" or plane crash-something exciting, spectacular, and far removed from a hospital bed. "Okay," she said. "Let's run the tests... But I'm drawing my own blood."


	46. Chapter 46

Tony didn't keep a lot of medical supplies at his Malibu home. Unlike Stark Tower, which had been modified for the Avengers, the mansion was a private residence. But Al still managed to find a blood-draw kit. She sat down, and Bruce picked up the tourniquet.

"What do you think you're doing?" Al demanded.

"I was just going to help you tie it."

"I can do it myself!"

"One-handed?"

"Yes!" Al showed him by holding one end of the rubber cord between her teeth while tying the knot with her free hand. "Just sit next to me and hand me test tubes," she ordered. She didn't like Bruce towering over her because he looked too much like Jimmy.

Bruce grimaced in pain as he sat down, and Al winced sympathetically. But Bruce said, "Don't look at me like that!"

"Like what?"

"Like you feel sorry for me. This is embarrassing enough as it is."

"I don't feel sorry for you... I empathize," Al admitted as blood gushed into the test tube.

Bruce wasn't squeamish. But it was too soon after the attack, and the sight of blood reminded him of that crushing moment when Mercy switched roles and penetrated him-just when he thought the rape was ending. The explosion of pain had been unbearable, but he couldn't scream. He couldn't even gasp for breath...like the little boy dangling helplessly in his father's grip. _If you breathe a word of this to anyone, you'll go to hell._

"Red."

Bruce jumped at the sound of Al's voice. "What?" he asked.

"I need another red-top."

Bruce looked down at his hand. He was holding a test tube with a purple top.

"The tubes have to be drawn in a certain order," Al explained. "First red, then-"

"I know, I know!" Bruce said. "I just got distracted." He grabbed a red test tube and thrust it at her. "I've run plenty of lab tests, you know."

"Another flashback?" Al asked gently.

"What? No! That's none of your business. Why are you so obsessed with flashbacks?"

Al handed Bruce a full test tube and took the next one from him. "Cut the bullshit, Bruce. It's me you're talking to."

Bruce stared at Al's blood, which was tainted like his own-the family curse.

"Blood is a trigger, isn't it?" Al asked.

Bruce looked up at her blankly.

"You reacted the same way when Tony asked about blood yesterday," Al said.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Then you probably _need_ to talk about it."

Bruce snatched another full tube from Al and gave her a new one. "How much blood are you going to draw?" he asked testily.

"Enough," Al replied simply.

Bruce furrowed his brow and absent-mindedly rocked the test tubes to mix the additives. He was trying to decide if he should tell Al what was bothering him. She handed him the last tube, removed the tourniquet, and pulled the needle out of her arm. A single drop of blood welled up, and she wiped it off. The wound healed immediately. As Al tugged on her her sleeve, Bruce suddenly remembered Mercy pulling up his pants. It had been a mocking gesture, meant to remind him that his shattered modesty could not be restored with clothes.

"Bruce?"

"What?" he asked wearily.

"You know I'll understand."

Bruce got up and limped to the counter so he wouldn't have to look Al in the eye. "Mercy is a shape-shifter..."

"I know," Al said. "I read it in her profile."

"After she forced me to...penetrate her...she morphed...and sodomized me." Bruce swallowed hard and placed the test tubes neatly in a rack. "It was familiar," he said, holding one of the tubes up to the light to check for clotting.

"Your father?"

Bruce nodded and put the the tube in the rack. "He used objects...to punish me."

"I'm sorry." Al wanted to hold Bruce and comfort him, but she knew it would make him feel dirty.

Bruce shrugged. "It's in the past," he said. But his eyes felt hot and dry. "Don't tell Tony," he pleaded.

"I only told him about Mercy because you were in crisis," Al said. "There's no reason for me to tell him about this." She began packing up the equipment. "Who you tell is up to you," she continued. "But Tony won't think any less of you."

"Are you still hearing voices?" Bruce asked.

Al knew Bruce was trying to change the subject, but she let him. "Yes, and now there's a third voice. They're all talking at once, and it's giving me a headache."

"You'd better call the clinic. Blood tests can't tell us everything."

"I will," Al promised. "After breakfast."


	47. Chapter 47

"What the fuck did you do to me?" Al demanded. She was talking to Cynthia on the phone while staring out a massive window at the magnificent view.

"I used psionic sedation. It causes temporary-"

"Not that! What did you do while I was unconscious?"

"Allison didn't share it with you?"

"No!" Al barked. "All she said is that you helped her deal with a repressed memory. I want to know what it was about." A couple of gardeners were placing soaker hoses along the base of some shrubs. The hoses looked like giant snakes and gave Al the creeps.

"It would be better if you came to my office to talk about it," Cynthia said.

"So you can knock me out again? I don't think so!"

"I did that because you were hurting Allison," Cynthia reminded her. "Why is it so important to know what happened?"

"I've started hearing voices," Al admitted.

"What are they saying?"

"It's hard to make out because they're all talking at once," Al said. She listened intently, trying to focus on a single voice. "One of them is talking about running the water all night...to leach the soil." Al watched the gardeners work. She couldn't be hearing them. They weren't even speaking. A realization dawned on her, and she went pale.

Cynthia confirmed her fears. "You're hearing other people's thoughts," she said.

"No, that's impossible," Al argued. "I'm not telepathic. I just imagined hearing that because I'm watching some gardeners water the lawn." Her legs felt weak, and she dropped onto the couch. "I don't hear Bruce's thoughts...or Pepper's and Tony's."

"I gave them psychic shields, remember?"

Al's heart was racing, and she wondered why she was so frightened.

"You've been telepathic since childhood," Cynthia explained. "But a traumatic event caused you to repress the ability."

"Allison's memory... That was the traumatic event?"

"Yes."

Al was silent.

"I really think you should come in so we can talk about this in person," Cynthia said. "I can teach you some ways to filter the noise."

Al was reluctant, but she agreed because her headache was getting worse. After she made the arrangements and hung up, she went to find Tony. "What are the gardeners doing?" she asked.

"They're leaching the salt out of the soil," Tony answered.

"Salt?" Al remembered that one of the voices had mentioned salt, and she felt sick.

"It's a common problem along the beach," Tony explained. "We use salt-tolerant plants, but this has been a hard year even for them. Soaking the soil slowly and deeply helps."

"Slowly as in overnight?" Al asked.

Tony nodded.

"And I take it the gardeners arrived early this morning to set up?"

"Yes," Tony responded. "If you're really interested, I can introduce you to them, and they can explain the whole process."

"No, that's okay." Al massaged her temple. "Do you know a pilot who can take me to New Mexico today?"

"I'll see if Rhodey is available." Rhodey had recently retired from the Marine Corps and joined Stark Industries as Tony's personal pilot.* "Are you okay?" Tony asked. He knew Al loved to fly and would never ask anyone else to do it if she were able.

"I just have a really bad headache," Al explained. "I'd better prepare for the flight." Al started to leave but turned back to Tony. "The next time you talk to George, tell him he really should join that church choir. He's a better singer than he realizes." Al walked away, and Tony stared after her in amazement. George was one of the gardeners, but Al had never met him.

* * *

*Based on the Iron Man comics.


	48. Chapter 48

Later that afternoon, Pepper came down to Tony's workshop. "Where's Al?" she asked.

"She went to New Mexico," Tony replied without looking up.

"What? She didn't tell me." Pepper looked disappointed. "When is she coming back?"

"I don't know," Tony answered. "You can check Rhodey's* flight plan."

"She's not flying herself?"

Tony finally looked up. "She said she had a headache."

"Why is she going to New Mexico?"

Tony shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't ask."

"Well, do you know where Bruce is?"

"He left before I got up this morning. I haven't seen him all day."

Pepper sighed in exasperation. She was a social person and couldn't understand why the others weren't communicating.

"Is something wrong?" Tony asked.

"No," Pepper said. "But I thought they'd want to know that Jimmy was working at Gamma Base when Mercy had radiation treatment there."

"Really?" Tony put down his tools and wiped his hands. "I wonder why Allison didn't say anything when she was reading Mercy's profile." He went over to Pepper and took the tablet she was holding.

"Allison would have been a child at the time," Pepper said as Tony skimmed the records. "She probably didn't know much about her father's job."

"This is too coincidental," Tony said.

"I know. We need to have a talk with Al and Bruce."

Pepper was waiting for Al when she stepped off the plane. "Allison?"

"Al."

"Oh! You were walking like Allison."

"What do you want?" Al asked wearily.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes."

"I got worried because you left without saying anything."

"I didn't know I was supposed to check in," Al said with exhausted sarcasm. She started to leave.

"Where's Allison?" Pepper asked. She was getting concerned because Allison hadn't emerged in two days. Unlike Bruce, who could go for months without switching personalities, Al and Allison switched several times a day.

Al stopped with her back to Pepper and thought for a moment about what she was going to say. "Allison is in the subconscious, dealing with some things," Al replied. She turned to face Pepper. "So you're stuck with me for a while."

"What happened?"

"You should ask Allison that," Al replied bitterly. "Oh, but you can't because she's gone into hiding. And I'm left facing this shit alone!"

"You're not alone," Pepper said. "You can talk to me."

"I don't need a confidante," Al said with a sigh. "I need another personality. But for some reason, we stopped splitting into new fragments after the rebellion."

"What's wrong?" Pepper asked earnestly.

"I'm telepathic," Al finally admitted. "And I have been most of my life. But Allison repressed our abilities, so I didn't know about it until this morning."

"Why would she do that?"

"Something traumatic happened, something she won't share with me." Al pursed her lips and stared at the runway. "With my telepathy, I should have known Mercy was raping Bruce. But I slept right through it."

Pepper said, "Mercy is powerful. I doubt you could have stopped her."

"What about my own attacker?" Al asked. "He was an average human."

"He was still bigger and stronger than you," Pepper reminded her.

"But I went to his apartment! If I'd known what a creep he was, I wouldn't have gone. I should have known..." Al faded from sight and wished Allison would take over.

Pepper said, "It's not your fault."

"I keep telling myself that," Al said. "But I don't think I'll ever believe it."

Pepper decided not to tell Al about her discovery just yet. "Will you join us for dinner tonight?" she asked. Maybe Al would be in a better mood by then.

"Sure," Al said. "You know me. I never miss a meal."

"I was going to invite Bruce, too, but I haven't seen him all day."

"That's not surprising. I think I stirred up some memories this morning," Al confessed. "I'll find him and persuade him to join us."

"You're not going to use some Jedi mind trick, are you?" Pepper asked, waving her hand.

Al laughed. "No! Besides, you've all got psychic shields."

* * *

*Rhodey eventually becomes Tony's pilot in the comics, but the timeline may turn out to be different in the movies.


	49. Chapter 49

_Young Bruce found himself in a fetal position, sobbing uncontrollably. His pants were down around his ankles, and his father was giving the broom handle a final twist. "You're a monster," Brian whispered fiercely in his ear. "But you're weak. And I own you."_

"Bruce."

Bruce let out a startled yelp and opened his eyes. He was sitting cross-legged on the beach, attempting to meditate, and hadn't heard Al approach. The childhood memory had been so vivid he could still feel the pain. Then he realized the pain was not part of his flashback. It was the psychic imprint left by Mercy, and it wasn't going to dissipate. "What do you want?" he asked angrily, but he was still shaking.

"I didn't mean to scare you," Al said, kneeling in front of Bruce.

"You didn't scare me," Bruce lied. "I was just trying to meditate. But I keep getting distracted by memories." He looked up at the seagulls flying overhead as if hearing their cacophony for the first time. "I wish my father were still alive," he confessed, "so I could kill him again."

"Mercy opened a lot of old wounds, didn't she?"

Bruce nodded. "The Hulk took all the sexual torture, so I never had to deal with it. But since the attack, his memories have been leaking into my consciousness."

Al understood. The Hulk had been an alternate personality long before gamma radiation made him big and strong. In those early years, the Hulk was just as vulnerable to abuse as anybody. So instead of protecting Bruce physically, the Hulk protected him psychologically, allowing him to separate himself from traumatic experiences. Those experiences were coming back to haunt Bruce, now.

Bruce picked up a handful of sand and watched it slip through his fingers. "A lot of things make sense, now, like the big guy's obsession with strength... But ignorance was bliss."

Al suddenly realized that she might not want to know the secrets Allison was keeping, after all, and she shivered.

"Are you cold?" Bruce asked. The sun was setting and the ocean breeze was starting to pick up.

But Al was more scared than cold. "Let's go inside," she suggested. "Pepper invited us to dinner."

"I don't want to go," Bruce replied, dusting the sand off his hands.

"Bruce, you've been hiding for two days. Everyone is worried about you."

"That's just it. You're all treating me like I'm helpless. It's demeaning." Bruce gritted his teeth and struggled to his feet.

Al jumped up and started to offer a Bruce a hand but stopped herself. "Maybe we are being overprotective," she admitted. "But at least we're taking this seriously." Too many people believed that men couldn't be raped by women.

"I know," Bruce agreed. "The first person who tells me I 'got lucky' is going to face the wrath of the big guy." He started up the hill toward the mansion.

"So you're joining us for dinner?" Al asked.

"I might as well," Bruce replied. "I can't meditate while you're talking to me."

Al saw the twinkle in his eye and smiled.

Pepper waited until the meal was over to make her announcement so she wouldn't spoil anyone's appetite-not that it mattered. Bruce picked at his food and remained quiet despite Pepper's efforts to draw him into conversation. And Tony, who had become obsessed with the containment device, spent the evening mulling over design modifications while getting drunk. The only one who ate well was Al, whose appetite rarely waned because of her high metabolism.

Pepper finally got frustrated with the silence and decided to skip the preamble. "Jimmy was at Gamma Base when Mercy was undergoing treatment," she announced.

Al was stunned. Why hadn't she made the connection herself? Then she remembered that Allison had been the one who read Mercy's records. "That little bitch!" she said, slamming her hand on the table. The others looked at her in startled confusion. "Allison has been repressing memories again," she explained. "We made an agreement after the core personality disappeared. We were going to share all our memories with each other. But she's been holding out on me!"

"The split in your personality happened for a reason," Bruce reminded Al. "You may not want to know all of Allison's memories."

"She's always been able to dilute memories in the past," Al replied.

Pepper said, "I don't understand."

"We take the emotional content out of our memories before passing them along," Al explained. "So when I recall Allison's memories, it's like remembering a movie instead of a personal experience."

"I wish the big guy knew how to do that," Bruce muttered.

"Don't you think this is too coincidental?" Pepper asked. "Doesn't it seem likely that Jimmy is behind Mercy's interest in the Banner family?"

"I always thought the nanites would get me in the end," Al said, "but maybe Jimmy sent Mercy after me, instead."

"Then why is she after me, too?" Bruce asked.

"Our fathers were working in the same line of research, at opposite ends of the spectrum," Al reminded Bruce. "Maybe Mercy was supposed to eliminate the entire project and got off track somewhere."

"But why is she coming back now?" Bruce asked. "It's been years since our last encounter."

"The rape," Al said.

Bruce tightened his jaw. It was strange how the word affected him differently at different times, depending on his mood. It was most upsetting when he was caught off guard.

Al noticed Bruce's reaction. "I'm sorry. I meant _my_ rape. It triggered a new power, and that may have attracted attention."

Bruce said, "It may have also given Mercy ideas about me... And I have a bad feeling she's coming back."

"When she does, we'll be ready," Tony said, holding up the diagram he'd been working on.


	50. Chapter 50

That night, Al went into the mindscape searching for Allison. But Allison wasn't guarding the crypt, and the door was ajar-the door that neither of them had been able to unlock or break down. Al gave the door a nudge, and it opened with a squeal. The building was small, but it protected the entrance to a vast underground network of catacombs.

Al stepped inside and wished for a flashlight. One appeared in her hand. But when she turned it on, the light was dim, which meant a deeper level of Al's subconscious was resisting her desire to look into the unknown. She crept to the top of the stairs and shouted, "Allison!"

Her voice echoed in the dank air. But there was no answer. Al shined the flashlight down the stairwell, but it only illuminated the first few steps. And the battery was quickly dying.

Al was indecisive. If she went down the steps and her flashlight died, she might get lost in the caverns, alone in the dark with the caskets of dead personalities. But Allison might be lost down there already, and Al couldn't leave her there. So she started descending the stairs slowly, her knees shaking with every step. She had been much braver before Allison disappeared.

On the fourth step, Al felt something soft under her foot. She shined her flashlight on it and saw a large snake, poised to bite. With a terrified scream, she dropped the flashlight and tried to back away. But there was a sharp pain in her leg as the snake bit her, and she stumbled and fell down the stairs. By the time she landed at the bottom, her body was racked with pain. She tried to crawl back up the steps, but her limbs felt heavy, and she could barely lift them. Suddenly there were snakes everywhere, wrapping themselves around her, pulling her deeper into the catacombs. The harder Al fought, the faster the venom coursed through her veins, and soon she was unconscious.

When Al awoke, she was lying on her back under a starry sky. Her muscles still ached from the venom, but she was alive and free. She struggled to sit up and looked around. She was on the ground in front of the crypt, but she couldn't remember how she got there. Had she managed to climb out on her own? She looked back at the crypt, and the door was closed again. She was too dizzy to stand, so she crawled over on her hands and knees and tried the knob. It was locked. She leaned against the door and let out a long sigh of relief.

Then it hit Al: she could see the stars. Her mindscape had been cloudy for as long as she could remember, and the stars had always been obscured. But now they were shining brightly in a clear sky. She stared at them in awe and put her hand over her heart. That's when she felt something hanging from a chain around her neck. She looked down and saw that it was an ornate golden key. Al wondered where it came from. She hadn't wished for it.

James Allan Banner woke with a start. The snakes he'd left as telepathic alarms in the crypt of Allison's mindscape had been triggered for the second time in one night. That meant Allison was dangerously close to discovering the truth, and when she did, she would become one of the most powerful beings on earth.

Mercy didn't require sleep. It was one of the curses that came with being an immortal angel. But she was enjoying a brief respite from the fires of hell, which didn't burn as fiercely at night. She was still racked by pain, but it was less intense now, allowing her to think more clearly-and plan.

The Voice of God had been repeatedly reminding Mercy that her primary mission was to retrieve Allison. And she would. But after her mission was accomplished, she had a new goal. She understood now why Bruce was so special to her. He was broken, yet unbreakable, shattered into countless personality fragments, each strong and resilient in its own way. That's why persuading him to accept suicide was such a challenge. But he had to be converted for his own good. The only way to bring peace to all of Bruce's personalities was by uniting them in the sweet sleep of death, a sleep that Mercy could never know.

When Mercy finished with Allison, she'd come back for Bruce and continue her evangelization. A few more sessions of sexual torture should convince him. Maybe next time she would-

_What is your mission?_

Mercy shook as the Voice of God rattled through her head. _Lord, you've returned_ _early, _she thought.

_You should always be prepared to meet your maker,_ the Voice replied. _Now, what is your mission?_

_To bring Allison into the fold unharmed,_ Mercy responded mechanically.

_Then why are you thinking about Bruce? _the Voice demanded.

_After I bring Allison to you, I was planning to- _

_You shall not think about anything but your current mission! Is that clear?_

_Yes, Lord, _Mercy replied.

_Here's something to help you remember. _A new surge of pain swept over Mercy, but she had learned not to scream.

When Pepper awoke the next morning, Al was already dressed and finishing her hair. After exchanging brief pleasantries, Al said, "I'm going to be making daily trips to New Mexico for a while."

"Are you dating Thor?" Pepper teased.

Al laughed. "No! He'll always be Dr. Blake to me, and I could never date my doctor. No, I have daily appointments with Cynthia."

"Is everything okay?"

Al nodded. "I'm not on the verge of a breakdown, if that's what you mean. She's just teaching me how to control my powers."


	51. Chapter 51

"That's when I found the key," Al said. She was telling Cynthia about her experience in the mindscape.

"Did you try it on the crypt door?" Cynthia asked.

"I thought about it, but I was scared of the snakes. Why am I so scared of snakes all of a sudden?"

"Allison still hasn't told you?"

"No, she's been missing for days."

Cynthia thought for a moment. Then she said, "You have a key, now, and that means other parts of your mind have decided it's time."

"Time for what?"

"A lot of things. But let's start by dealing with your new fear of snakes. May I enter your mindscape?"

Al was hesitant.

Cynthia said, "You're not going to hurt anyone, are you?"

"No," Al answered defensively.

"Then you don't have to worry about me sedating you."

Al relented and soon found herself in the mindscape with Cynthia.

Cynthia said, "Wish for a snake."

"Are you kidding? I don't want to get bit!"

"I won't let it hurt you," Cynthia promised.

Al shook her head.

"Just wish for the damn snake!" Cynthia said. She had a feeling anger would motivate Al, and it did. A beautiful ball python suddenly appeared on the ground between them. "Does that look like the snake that bit you?"

"No, it looks like a pet I once had."

"Is it acting like the snake that bit you?"

"No..." Al was beginning to understand. "This snake looks and acts like a real one. The snakes in my nightmares are like shadows. I can never get a clear look at them. And they're unusually strong and aggressive." She stooped down and ran her hand along the python's skin. "They don't even feel the same." She picked up the python and let it wrap itself around her arm. "Why are they so different?"

Cynthia said, "Remember, everything in the mindscape is a symbol."

Al studied the python as it lazily explored her scent and said, "If this snake represents a real snake, what do the others represent?"

"I think you already know," Cynthia answered, and the ground began to quake.

"What's happening?" Al asked.

"A repressed memory is trying to surface."

"Make it stop!"

"Your subconscious has decided that you need to know what's down there," Cynthia said. "Blocking it could be dangerous."

The earth opened up and swallowed Al.

Bruce was meditating on the beach again, and he felt his pain rising and falling like the incoming tide. He'd discovered that concentrating on the pain actually made it more bearable because he could focus on smaller, more manageable sensations instead of feeling everything at once and being overwhelmed.

Bruce heard the soft footsteps of a runner in the distance, but he kept his eyes closed until the runner got closer. Then he heard the irregular rhythm of the runner's breath and realized this was not someone out for a jog. This was a frightened person. He looked up and saw Pepper approaching, so he struggled to his feet. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's Allison."


	52. Chapter 52

"What happened?" Tony asked when their flight to New Mexico was underway.

"Cynthia didn't go into much detail on the phone," Pepper replied. "She just said Allison has amnesia."

"How far back?" Tony asked.

"September," Pepper answered.

"That's why Rhodey is taking us to pick her up," Bruce explained. "She doesn't remember where your house is."

"Or who I am," Tony added.

"That's right," Pepper said. "She won't know either of us."

When the friends arrived at the clinic, Cynthia was waiting for them. "Dr. Blake is sitting with Allison," she said as she led them to her office. "I want to explain what happened before you see her."

They sat down, and everyone looked at Cynthia nervously.

"I was working with Al in the mindscape," Cynthia said, "when a repressed memory surfaced. I can't tell you anything about it for privacy reasons, but I can tell you that Al is safe. She's decided to go into the subconscious for a while and work on some things."

"So Allison is back?" Pepper asked.

"No," Cynthia replied. "She's in the subconscious helping Al. The core personality, the original Allison, is the one in charge now."

Pepper said, "I thought she was dead."

"So did they," Cynthia responded. "She was hiding in a part of the subconscious they couldn't access, a place they call the 'crypt.' The crypt holds all the personalities that have become inactive-the ones that have died, so to speak. But the core Allison remained active while in the crypt and spent her time exploring."

Bruce understood because he had plenty of experience in his own mindscape. That's where he went when the Hulk took over. But Cynthia could tell that Tony and Pepper were having difficulty, so she tried to explain it another way. "It's like the core personality has been asleep all this time. She doesn't remember anything that happened in the conscious realm, just dreams that don't always make sense."

"Does she understand where she's been?" Bruce asked. "Does she know other personalities were in charge?"

"She was unaware she had a split personality before this happened," Cynthia answered. "As far as she knew, she was just forgetful. I've explained it to her, but I'm not sure she believes it."

Bruce nodded thoughtfully. He'd have trouble believing that his own personality was split if the Hulk didn't make it impossible to ignore.

Cynthia said, "Bruce, I think you should see her first because she remembers you. Then you can introduce her to the others."

She led Bruce to a room down the hall, where Allison was talking with Thor. Allison stiffened when she saw Bruce but smiled politely.

Cynthia said, "Bruce, this is Alice."

"I thought I should go by a different name to avoid confusion," Alice explained. "I chose 'Alice' because I feel like I disappeared down a rabbit hole."

Cynthia said, "I'll let you two catch up while I talk to Tony and Pepper." She left, and Bruce flinched as he lowered himself into a chair.

"What happened to you?" Alice asked.

Bruce looked at Thor. "The same thing that happened to you," he said.

Alice understood immediately. "Oh my God! I am so sorry!"

"Please... Don't do that. It embarrasses me," Bruce admitted. "What do you remember?" he asked, trying to change the subject.

"The last thing I remember is the attack. Dr. Blake treated me afterward, and he's been telling me what happened next."

"I was going to testify as a medical expert," Thor said, "but the D.A. decided to drop the charges."

"Lack of evidence," Alice explained. "If I'd been human-"

_You're a monster. _

"You _are_ human," Bruce interrupted, trying to drown out his father's voice.

"Not in the eyes of the law," Alice said.

_You're weak. And I own you._ Another pain shot through Bruce, and he felt his soul shrivel.

Thor said, "Bruce?"

"What?" Bruce barked.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Bruce grumbled. He realized he had a death-grip on the arm of his chair and forced himself to let go. "What do you remember about Jimmy?" he asked Alice.

"Who?"

"Your father," Bruce said.

"Oh! You know he doesn't like to be called that, right?" Alice asked, fidgeting.

Bruce waited quietly. He felt guilty for putting Alice on the spot, but he needed to know.

"He was strict," Alice confessed. "But he had to be. It's not easy raising a meta human."

Thor clenched his jaw. He knew the truth about Jimmy. He'd seen evidence of old fractures in Alice's x-rays, fractures that occurred early in childhood, before she had nanites in her system to heal her completely. But he couldn't say anything to Bruce without Alice's consent, so looked at the clock an said, "Excuse me, I have an appointment."

Bruce watched Thor leave. When he turned back to Alice, he had a hollow expression that scared her. She couldn't tell if he was angry, sad, or both.

"I don't know why you're asking about him, anyway," Alice said defensively. "He died years ago."

"Who told you he was dead?" Bruce asked.

"A couple of men in dark suits," Alice replied, picking at a piece of lint.

"Did they actually say he was dead?" Bruce pressed.

"I don't know... I don't remember." Allison had let the men in, and when Alice took over, they were already removing Jimmy's things. She couldn't remember what they'd told Allison, so she filled the gaps with speculation.

"There's a lot you don't remember, isn't there?" Bruce asked.

Alice nodded. "Cynthia says it's a symptom of multiple personalities."

"But you don't believe her."

"You have to admit it seems far-fetched."

"So you think we're all lying to you?"

"No, I think I was delusional after the assault. I said and did things that don't make sense. But I'm in my right mind now."

Bruce swallowed hard. "I was raped a few days ago, does that make me delusional?"

Alice said, "My father warned me about you. He said you were just like Uncle Brian."

Bruce felt the monster welling up within him, so he left abruptly, without saying another word, and slammed the door so hard the frames on the wall shook.


	53. Chapter 53

The door to Cynthia's office burst open. It was Bruce.

"You'll have to make the introductions," he told Cynthia. "I can't talk to her anymore."

"What happened?" Cynthia asked.

"She said I'm just like my father!"

"This personality hasn't seen you in years," Cynthia explained. "She doesn't really know you."

"Maybe so," Bruce said. "But I still need time to calm down-for everyone's safety."

"Why don't I go for a walk with Bruce and help him calm down?" Tony suggested. "Pepper can meet with Alice next. The other personalities trusted her right away, so maybe Alice will, too."

"That's a good idea," Cynthia agreed. "The last few months are missing from Alice's memory. As far as she's concerned, the assault happened yesterday. So she may trust a woman more readily than a man."

Bruce suddenly realized that he was raped by both genders. He'd been thinking of his father's actions as sexual torture, and it was. But it was also rape. It didn't matter that Brian was motivated by anger rather than lust or that he used objects instead of his body. The effect was still the same, and Bruce felt sick.

Bruce didn't want to be alone with Tony. Tony was too observant and would surely figure out what was wrong. But Bruce knew that refusing to go would raise more questions than he wanted to answer, so he left with Tony. They walked together quietly for several minutes, occasionally slowing down to accommodate Bruce's pain.

Finally Tony said, "Why have you been avoiding me?"

"You ask too many questions."

"I wouldn't have to ask questions if you weren't so secretive."

"I just want some privacy," Bruce complained. "What's wrong with that?"

"You didn't want this much privacy before."

"Well, I do now." They were both silent for a while.

Then Tony said, "I know about your father."

"Everyone knows about my father," Bruce said, picking up his pace despite the pain. "The murder trial made it public record." He knew that wasn't what Tony meant, but he was hoping to steer the conversation in a different direction.

Tony quickened his stride to keep up and said, "I know he molested you."

Bruce stopped short, and the muscles in his jaw twitched as anger and shame warred against each other."I don't want to talk about it," he said.

"I'm not asking you to," Tony replied. "I just wanted you to know you can stop trying to hide it from me."

Bruce looked away and sighed.

"It doesn't change my opinion of you," Tony continued. "You're still the second smartest person I know."

Bruce smirked at the friendly jibe and started walking again. But Tony thought he seemed a little more relaxed.


	54. Chapter 54

When Bruce and Tony arrived back at the clinic, they found Pepper and Cynthia with Alice. Alice looked at Tony and said, "You're that millionaire, aren't you?"

"Billionaire, actually," Tony replied.

"But you inherited it," Alice added.

Tony said, "I'll have you know I've tripled the value of Stark Industries since I've taken over." He'd put up with a lot from Al because he could sense the vulnerability beneath her bravado. But Alice was different. Her tone of voice had a bitter, arrogant edge that made her thoroughly unlikeable, and Tony immediately understood why Bruce had walked out.

But Pepper, bless her heart, had somehow managed to connect with Alice. "I've been explaining why you left so abruptly," Pepper said to Bruce.

Bruce felt his chest tighten, and his heart began to race. He was worried that Pepper, like Tony, had recognized the signs of incest and knew his secret.

Tony saw that Bruce was battling the monster again, so he put a hand on Bruce's shoulder, and said. "I'm sure she was telling Alice about the murder trial."

Bruce shivered at the unexpected touch. Then he remembered that his earlier allusion to the trial had been an attempt to guide the conversation away from sexual abuse and toward publicly known facts. By referring to the trial now, Tony was subtly reassuring him that Pepper would not discuss personal secrets.

Tony noticed that Bruce was beginning to breathe slower, but he slipped his hand in his pocket and found the TranQuill just in case.

Alice said to Bruce, "I knew about the trial, but I didn't realize that the big green monster on the news was you. I should have seen the resemblance."

_You're a monster. But you're weak-_

Tony said, "He doesn't like that word."

Tony's statement interrupted Bruce's flashback and brought him back to the present. "That's right," Bruce said. "I don't."

"I guess there are some legitimate cases of split personality, after all," Alice continued. "But just because you have it doesn't mean I do. I never experienced childhood trauma. My father loved me and would never do anything to hurt me." She said the words with an air of superiority that implied anyone who was abused was unlovable.

Tony saw Bruce's eyes start to glow. He stabbed Bruce with the TranQuill and yelled, "Get out!" Cynthia and Pepper grabbed Alice and dragged her out of the room. Tony tried to follow, but a large green hand grabbed him by the cast and dragged him back in. The others heard a sickening crunch followed by a heavy thud that felt like an earthquake. They rushed back into the room and found the Hulk unconscious on the floor with Tony standing over him.

"Are you all right?" Pepper gasped.

"The cast provided some protection," Tony replied. But the metal was crushed around his arm like tin foil.

"So that's what that contraption was supposed to be," Alice said. "Does he have a habit of breaking your arm?" she asked, nudging the Hulk with her foot.

"No," Tony replied. "And don't kick him!"

Alice said, "I was just checking to see if he was really unconscious."

"He is!" Tony said as he placed a pillow under the Hulk's head. He found a blanket in the cabinet and draped it over the sleeping giant. "He's still human. So treat him with some dignity."

"What happened?" Thor asked. He and several staff members had come running when they heard the commotion, and now they were clustered in the hallway trying to get a glimpse into the room. Luckily Pepper, Alice, and Cynthia were blocking the view.

"He changed," Pepper replied.

Thor understood and turned to the crowd. "It's okay. Everything is under control here. Back to work!" When the crowd had dispersed, Thor slipped into the room and shut the door. "Is everyone okay?" he asked.

"Yes," Tony answered. "I gave him a tranquilizer right away."

Thor said, "Your arm-"

"It looks worse than it is," Tony interrupted.

"Let me be the judge of that," Thor replied.

"Let's give the doctor room to work," Pepper said, ushering the others out of the room. She could see that Tony was about to go ballistic on Alice and needed to be away from her for a while.


	55. Chapter 55

"Why are you being so mean?" Pepper asked Alice when they returned to Cynthia's office.

Alice was sincerely dumbfounded. "What are you talking about?"

"Do you listen to yourself at all?" Pepper persisted. "Those are your friends in there. They've helped you though some difficult times. And you're treating them like dirt!"

"They're not my friends," Alice replied. "I hardly know them."

Pepper rolled her eyes and sighed.

"I don't remember what happened after the attack," Alice continued. "But I must have been deranged if I sought help from an eccentric millionaire I've never met and a cousin I barely know whose father is nuts."

"And yours isn't?!"

Cynthia decided it was time to intervene. She took Pepper by the arm and said, "I need to talk to you alone for a minute."

Once they were in the hall, Cynthia said, "You have to remember that this personality has been sheltered by the others. They took all the abuse for her so she could keep believing she had a safe, happy childhood."

"But she knows something was wrong!"

"I agree," Cynthia replied. "That's why she's being so abrasive. She doesn't want to discover the truth." Cynthia put her hands on Pepper's shoulders. "You're not going to talk her out of years of denial in twenty minutes. And if you push too hard, you'll drive her away. You don't want to do that right now because she's still being stalked, and when the body is in danger, all the personalities are in danger."

Pepper studied Cynthia's face and softened a little bit. "I know you're right," she admitted. "But Alice is making this really hard. I'm not a short-tempered person."

Cynthia nodded. "I know. That's why I'm telling you this. If anyone can get through to her, it's you."

Meanwhile, Thor was sawing off Tony's cast. "This is going to take a while," he said.

"That's because I designed it to resist almost anything," Tony replied.

"Except a Hulk," Thor quipped.

"You know, you could just rip it off," Tony suggested. Thor had the strength to do it.

"I'd like to keep my identity secret," Thor replied. Since Loki's attempt to take over the world, Asgardians were not well-liked on earth.

"It must be hard on you," Tony said.

"I keep busy with my medical practice," Thor answered without looking up. Then he nodded at the Hulk and said, "I worry about him."

"It must be tough losing your only confidante," Tony agreed, studying the unconscious figure.

"He's still got you," Thor said.

Tony scoffed. "He's avoiding me like the plague."

"He's embarrassed," Thor explained. "He feels like his masculinity has been threatened."

"He told you that?" Tony asked, looking at Thor. Thor was not one to break patient confidentiality. Then he saw the expression in Thor's eyes, and his heart sank. "Personal experience?"

Thor became engrossed in his work and said nothing. But now Tony understood why Thor knew so much about the subject of rape.

When Pepper returned to Cynthia's office alone, Alice said, "You won't have to argue with me much longer. As soon as I pack my things, I'm leaving. I have this island-"

"The upper level of your bunker has been destroyed," Pepper interrupted gently.

"What? How do you know? What happened?"

"You were being stalked, so you invited us to the island, thinking it would be a safe place. But the stalker found it..." Pepper paused to swallow a knot in her throat. "She raped Bruce, and he turned into the Hulk."

A wave of panic threatened to drown Alice. Her own assault was fresh in her memory, and the thought of a rapist finding her island terrified her. "Why Bruce?" she asked. "Was it to get even with me?" Alice didn't like Bruce much, but she would never wish anything like this on him. And the thought that she had caused the attack, even indirectly, made her feel guilty.

"She's delusional," Pepper explained. "And we think someone is manipulating her to destroy you both." Pepper decided not to mention Mercy's connection to Jimmy because it might alienate Alice. "I should probably begin with your arrival at Stark Tower." Pepper told Alice what had been happening and pulled out her phone to show Alice the evidence and records they'd been gathering.

When Alice saw pictures of her injured arm, she shivered. This was undeniable proof that Pepper was telling the truth. They really were trying to help her.


	56. Chapter 56

Thor was finishing Tony's new cast when Pepper returned.

"How's your arm?" she asked.

"No new breaks, and the plate is still in place," Tony replied.

"But you're stuck with a regular cast," Pepper observed.

"It won't take long to build a new one." Tony looked over at the unconscious Hulk. "We'd better plan on staying here tonight. He's going to be out for a few more hours, and when he wakes up he's going to have a nasty headache... Speaking of headaches, where's Alice?"

Pepper tried to look angry, but she couldn't contain a smirk. "She's talking to Cynthia... You know, she's not so bad if you don't push her buttons."

"But she has a lot of buttons," Tony joked.

"She's scared of being confronted with the truth about her father," Pepper said. Then she briefly explained what Cynthia told her.

Thor was relieved to find out that Pepper and Tony already knew Alice had been abused. He was tired of hiding the rage he felt toward Jimmy. "Bruce did ask Alice about her father," he interjected. "That's when she got anxious and defensive."

"And our reaction kept her defensive," Pepper added.

"That tone of voice makes it hard not to react," Tony said.

"I don't think she knows that," Pepper explained. "She seemed genuinely surprised when I confronted her about it."

"I'm sure she learned her speech from that _dreki_*," Thor said, fire flashing in his eyes. Human children were fragile and incapable of defending themselves. Anyone who harmed a child was a coward. "Excuse me, I have other appointments," he added.

After Thor had left, Pepper said, "Wow, he's really angry."

"As her doctor he's probably seen more of the damage than we have," Tony replied. "Did you tell her about Mercy?"

"She knows everything now, except our suspicion that Jimmy is behind it," Pepper answered. "I thought it would be best not to alienate her."

"We can't keep coddling her forever."

"No, but this is not the time to confront her," Pepper said. "Maybe she'll be ready after Al and Allison finish their work in the subconscious."

"In the meantime, this is going to be especially hard on Bruce. It was good for him to have someone who understood." Tony looked over and saw that the sleeping Hulk had finally changed back to Bruce. "I'm going to see if I can find some place more comfortable for him, now that he'll fit. Maybe an exam table..."

Pepper said, "Try to find something that doesn't bring up bad memories for him." Bruce had never complained about such things, but after getting to know Allison, Pepper had a new perspective on PTSD.

Tony sighed. "I don't know if that's possible with as much as he's been through."

When Bruce awoke, he found himself lying on the couch in Cynthia's office. "This is such a cliché," he muttered.

Cynthia looked up from her paperwork and laughed. "You know, in all my years of practice, you're the first person who has actually laid down on that couch."

Bruce groaned as he sat up. "Did he hurt anyone?" he asked, cradling his head in his hands.

"You crushed Tony's cast, and he'll probably have a few bruises," Cynthia replied. "But he wasn't injured."

Bruce grunted in acknowledgement. He knew Cynthia had deliberately used the word _you_ to emphasize that he and the Hulk were the same person. But the Hulk represented parts of Bruce's personality that he wasn't ready to embrace yet.

"Headache?" Cynthia asked.

"Side effect of the sedative," Bruce grumbled, still holding his head.

Cynthia knew dry mouth would be another side effect, so she poured Bruce a glass of water from her carafe and took it to him. He drank it in one long gulp. When he finished, Cynthia poured him another glass and sat in a chair across from him. Then she said, "You've been having a lot of flashbacks lately, haven't you?"

"You said you weren't going to read my mind."

"I don't have to. I can tell by the way you're reacting to Alice. It's like you're responding to the memories she's evoking more than the words she's saying."

Bruce massaged his temples and said nothing.

"It might help to talk about it," Cynthia offered.

"Why? Talking won't change what happened."

"No," Cynthia agreed. "But it might change your attitude."

"My attitude is fine!" Bruce snapped. Then he recognized the irony of his angry response, and his shoulders dropped. "I've been having flashbacks about my father," he admitted, "in addition to the ones I was already having about Mercy."

"It's not unusual for stress to reactivate PTSD," Cynthia said. "Did your father sexually abuse you?"

Bruce grimaced and clutched his chest.

"What's wrong? Cynthia asked.

"It hurts to breathe," he said.

"You're probably having an anxiety attack," Cynthia explained. "Take long, slow breaths, and the muscles in your chest will eventually relax."

When the pain finally receded, Cynthia said, "I was right about your father, wasn't I?"

"It's just another thing to add to the list," Bruce said with a shrug, trying to sound nonchalant. But his eyes were red.

"Did you know about this aspect of the abuse before Mercy attacked you?"

"I had suspicions," Bruce replied, "but the memories didn't start surfacing until after the assault."

Bruce looked down and suddenly became quiet. Someone had replaced his torn clothing while he was unconscious. No doubt Tony had done it to spare him the embarrassment of his clothes falling off when they moved him. But Bruce still felt violated. He closed his eyes and swallowed hard.

"This would all go away if you'd just remove the implant," Bruce continued. "The pain is a constant reminder..."

"You'll still have flashbacks after the pain is gone," Cynthia warned him. "But I can check to see if you're ready." Cynthia started to remove the shield she had placed around Bruce's mind.

_Bruce felt someone pulling down his pants. Was it Mercy...or his father? It didn't matter because he knew what was going to happen next. He shivered and braced for the pain. _

"I'm sorry, I can't."

Bruce jumped at the sound of Cynthia's voice and opened his eyes. His face was wet. "Why not?" he demanded, wiping the water away fiercely.

"I think you know why," Cynthia answered gently. "What happened when I removed the shield?"

"Nothing!" Bruce said.

"Then why are you crying?"

"I'm not crying!" Bruce insisted. "The dry air is making my eyes water." He believed it, too. How could he be crying if he wasn't feeling any emotion?

"You're dissociating again, aren't you?" Cynthia asked.

Bruce remembered the emptiness he felt while Mercy was raping him and realized he was experiencing the same thing now. "Maybe you're right," he said with a long sigh. "This is too much to handle at once."

Cynthia knew that some aspects of PTSD served life-saving functions during trauma, and Bruce might need to call upon those resources if Mercy suddenly reappeared. So she decided not to force the issue. "We can deal with this later," she said. "In the meantime, I'm increasing the dose on your anti-anxiety medication. It won't stop the flashbacks, but it should make them more manageable."

* * *

*Old Norse for a serpent-like _dragon_


	57. Chapter 57

Bruce found Tony alone in the empty waiting room, so he eased himself into a chair and stared silently at the fish tank. He was still embarrassed that Tony knew about the incest, and it didn't help that Tony had dressed him. But what alternative was there? He didn't want to be paraded through the halls naked or in a half-open hospital gown. But even fully dressed he felt so exposed his skin hurt... "I'm not gay," he finally said.

"Do you think it would matter to me if you were?" Tony asked.

"I don't know. It would to some people."

"Well, I'm not some people," Tony said disdainfully. "Why are bringing this up, anyway?"

"Because you know about my father."

"Did Mercy make you straight?"

Bruce wrinkled his nose. "What? No!"

"Then how could your father make you gay?" Tony asked. "Rape isn't about sexual preference."

Bruce cocked his jaw like he'd been slapped and took a deep breath. That word had caught him off guard again. He wasn't used to hearing it the context of his father. "Where are Pepper and Alice?" he asked, changing the subject.

"They've already checked in at the hotel," Tony answered. "We knew you were going to be out for a while."

Bruce relaxed when he heard that Alice wasn't around.

Tony said, "She really pushes your buttons, doesn't she?"

Bruce nodded and watched a clownfish nestle safely within a stinging anemone. Then he said, "Is it true you had PTSD after you came back from Afghanistan?" The tabloids had blamed Tony's bizarre behavior on the condition, but they were never known for journalistic accuracy.

"It didn't affect me the way the media thought it did," Tony answered. "But I had my share of sleepless nights."

"And flashbacks?" Bruce asked.

Tony didn't answer, but his expression told Bruce he'd understand.

"I've had a lot of flashbacks today," Bruce admitted, "about Mercy...about my father... Alice is triggering them."

Tony told Bruce the theory that Alice had been sheltered by other personalities and was scared of facing the truth.

"I wish the big guy would protect me that well," Bruce replied.

"What do you mean?"

"He's the one who... The one my father molested. That's why I could never remember how the beatings ended." Bruce smoothed the wrinkles out of the scrubs he was wearing. They had probably been folded when Tony found them. "That's when it usually happened," he explained. "I thought I was passing out because I couldn't remember anything. But _he_ was taking over."

Tony knew Bruce was talking about the Hulk.

"I didn't understand why I always woke up...sore...until after Mercy. Then _he_ started letting his memories into my consciousness." Bruce's vision blurred as he relived the humiliation, and he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were red and moist. "Why didn't he protect me this time? Was he punishing me because he had to take all that abuse in childhood? Did he decide it was my turn, now?"

"Maybe the biological factors weren't right," Tony said. "Maybe your pulse was too slow, for example."

Bruce swallowed and went back to watching the aquarium. "You're right," he admitted. "I'm blaming him, but I know it was me. I didn't get emotional enough to change. I think on some level, I wanted it to happen. I was celibate for so long... Maybe I just wanted sex any way I could get it."

"This is not your fault," Tony responded adamantly. "You were attacked by a deranged serial killer who enjoys torturing her victims until they beg for death. She was probably using her powers to repress your feelings and subdue the Hulk."

_You want to die now, don't you?_

Bruce grimaced and held his head, but it wasn't because of the headache. "I can still hear her voice in my mind asking me if I want to die."

"Well, I'm glad you said no," Tony replied.

"I don't know," Bruce confessed. "Sometimes I think I made the wrong decision. After I refused to die, she got really violent."

Tony knew from Mercy's record that she could be very sadistic in her efforts to "persuade" her victims, and she'd probably gone to special extremes with Bruce because she knew the Hulk would heal him. Now Mercy's imprint was making Bruce relive the pain, and the pain was keeping him too traumatized to let anyone remove the imprint. It was a vicious cycle carefully orchestrated by Mercy to wear Bruce down, and it infuriated Tony. "I want to kill her," he admitted.

Bruce said, "It doesn't work."

"I know," Tony replied with a sigh. "According to her profile, she's almost indestructible."

"No, I mean her death won't resolve anything. Killing my father didn't."

Tony suddenly felt cold. "You killed your father?"

Bruce nodded. "It was an accident, and I was acquitted. But I still feel guilty."

Tony let out a long breath. Every time he thought he knew his friend, he discovered another awful burden that Bruce was quietly bearing. No wonder Bruce had a split personality...

"Let's go to the hotel," Bruce declared as he struggled to his feet. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"You never want to talk about it," Tony said. "But you've got to face it some time."

"I face it all day, every day," Bruce admitted. "That's why I never want to talk about it."

Tony sighed and followed Bruce out the door.


	58. Chapter 58

That night, while Alice slept fitfully, Al and Allison were busy in the crypt. They no longer needed flashlights because the underground labyrinth glowed warmly everywhere they went. "Who's next?" Al asked.

Allison looked at her map and said, "Alyssa. She's down here on the left." Allison led Al to a casket tucked in a hole in the wall. When Al reached for it, a snake slithered out.

Al rolled her eyes. "It's another one of Jimmy's damn snakes," she said.  
Now that she knew the snakes were just alarms, she no longer feared them. She picked it up by the tail and cracked it like a whip, snapping its spine and killing it in one move.

"You know Jimmy senses it every time you do that," Allison reminded her.

"I don't care," Al replied. "I want every trace of that bastard out of our mind. Besides, what can he do to us now? We have all the power."

"But we still have to learn how to use it," Allison warned her.

"We can learn as we go," Al reassured her. "What's Alyssa's power?"

Allison checked the map. "Levitation."

"You mean we can fly? How cool is that?" Al hefted the casket out of the wall and used the key she was wearing around her neck to unlock it.

Allison opened the casket and kissed Alyssa softly on the cheek, like a mother tucking a small child in bed.

The color slowly returned to Alyssa's face, and her eyes began to flutter. Then she bolted up and screamed, "He's going to kill me!"

Al stood poised to restrain Alyssa if she got violent. Some personalities woke up still defending themselves from Jimmy. But this time Al's strength was not needed.

Allison took Alyssa in her arms. "You're safe, now," she crooned in Alyssa's ear, and Alyssa melted into tears.

Al looked away. Crying still made her feel awkward, but at least it didn't anger her anymore.

"What happened?" Alyssa asked when she'd finally stopped crying.

"Jimmy's experiments worked better than he expected," Al began.

Alyssa turned to Allison. "Who's Jimmy?" she asked.

"Our father," Allison answered. "We don't call him 'Dad' anymore."

"Remember how he was always experimenting on us?" Al asked.

Alyssa wrapped her arms around herself and nodded. "He used to get really angry when the experiments didn't work," she said.

"Well, they did work," Al explained. "But not right away. Most of our powers didn't emerge until puberty."

Allison said, "Remember the rebellion?"

Alyssa shivered. "How can I forget?"

"The torture was supposed to activate our powers and train us to be compliant," Allison said. "But Jimmy unlocked too many powers at once."

"He knew he was going to lose control over us," Al continued, taking up the story. "So he entered our subconscious and partitioned most of our personalities-and their powers-in these coffins." Al stomped on a rock and ground it to dust.

Alyssa saw that the floor was littered with piles of dust. "Why didn't we notice him inside our mind?" she asked.

"It's my fault," Al replied, hefting Alyssa out of the casket. "I was born during the rebellion to protect the rest of you. But I got distracted by the pain and failed."

"You didn't fail," Allison reassured Al. "You kept the body alive, and you kept us functioning. We wouldn't be here without you... Thank you."

No one had ever thanked Al for her sacrifice during the rebellion. The only personalities that remained conscious after the incident were Al, Alice, and Allison. Alice was completely unaware what had happened, and Allison had been too busy trying to manage her own problems. So the unexpected gratitude brought a lump to Al's throat, and she had to look away.

Allison turned to Alyssa and said, "I want you to wait for us in the Great Room." She gave her directions. "Others will be waiting for you there, and more will join you. After we've finished reviving everyone, we'll come and explain what's happening."

After Alyssa left, Allison put her arm around Al, and Al finally let a single tear escape. "Let's go back to work," Al said.

Allison agreed. "We're going to _need_ all our powers."


	59. Chapter 59

James Allan Banner awoke in a cold sweat. The telepathic alarms in Allison's mind were being triggered with frightening regularity, now, and someone had gotten brave enough to begin deactivating them. He tried yet again to get inside Allison's mind and learn what was happening. But he couldn't penetrate the barrier she'd unconsciously formed against him years ago.

When James' own telepathic power had first emerged, it seemed like an easy way to control Allison. But his frequent violation of her mind trained her subconscious to recognize his attempts and block them. That's why James had resorted to using Mercy. Allison wasn't immune to Mercy's telepathy because she hadn't been exposed to it often enough.

The annoying angel delusion that made Mercy so difficult to train also made it easy for James to penetrate her mind. Mercy wouldn't resist someone claiming to be God. All he had to do was tell Mercy to retrieve Allison. And with Mercy's power of teleportation, it should have been a quick and simple task. But her own delusions were stronger than any suggestions James planted in her mind. Whenever she was around the Banner cousins, her murderous desires took control, and she forgot all about her orders from "God."

The incident with Bruce had been a fiasco that almost compromised the mission, and Mercy was still in remedial training for it. But time was running out, and James was going to have to take Mercy out of training early. He just hoped she could stay focused-or frightened-long enough to follow his instructions this time.

_"If you make so much as a sound, you'll go to hell," Brian whispered in young Bruce's ear. It was the only threat that still worked. Death alone might bring an end to Bruce's suffering. But if he went to hell, the torment would be everlasting.*_

_Bruce was pinned face down, and he knew what his father was going to do. He steeled himself and bit his lip to keep from crying out. The pain was so intense he made his own lip bleed. Then he heard a female voice say, "I told you that you'd beg for death by the time I was finished with you." Bruce looked over his shoulder and saw a shock of purple hair._

He woke with a start. It was just a nightmare, like all the other nightmares he'd been having since the attack. But something was different... "Purple!" he shouted.

Tony sat up and turned on the light. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I saw her hair this time!" Bruce said, jumping out of bed in spite of the pain.

"What are you talking about?"

"Mercy blocked her face and hair from my memory."

"So?"

"When I have nightmares about the attack, I can never see her hair. But I did this time."

"Because this nightmare wasn't a memory," Tony said, following the logic.

"It was psychic interference," Bruce concluded. "That means-"

"She's here!" they shouted in unison and rushed out the room.

Pepper was already screaming by the time they reached the other room, and they were about to break down the door when she opened it.

"She's gone!" Pepper wailed. "I didn't have time to react. I heard a gasp, and when I looked, Mercy was on top of Alice. Then they both disappeared."

Tony turned to Bruce. "Any idea where Mercy might have taken Alice?"

Bruce looked green, and Tony suddenly realized he'd left the TranQuill on the nightstand.

"Get your suit!" Tony shouted to Pepper. Then he took off running to distract the Hulk.

Tony heard heavy footsteps behind him, but he didn't slow down to look. He ran back to his room and pulled his portable suit out from under his bed. The armor was still unfolding itself when the Hulk came crashing through the door, and Tony realized with dismay that he was wearing a regular cast, now. That meant he had nothing to hold off the Hulk until the suit was fully activated. The Hulk charged at Tony while he waited helplessly for the armor to finish wrapping itself around him.

Just then Cynthia materialized and put up a force field. The Hulk rammed into it, and she strained to hold the field. "I'm sorry," she said to Tony. "This is going to affect you, too." She began speaking in a strange language, and Tony and the Hulk both collapsed. But the suit dutifully continued working its way across Tony's skin until he was fully covered.

Pepper arrived in her armor and hovered for a moment in the broken doorway. Then she flew over to Cynthia and landed next to her. "What happened?" she asked, raising her visor.

"I used psionic sedation. It works on everyone who hears the words, so I had to take them both out. But they'll be fine when they wake up."

"How did you know we needed you?"

"I felt someone removing the protective barrier I put around Bruce's mind." Cynthia answered. She looked up as she felt more minds headed their direction. "Hotel security is arriving," she said. "I'd like to keep my identity secret, so I'll talk to you later." With that, she disappeared.

* * *

*As far as I know, Brian only threatened Bruce with hell once in the comics, but I've taken the liberty to expand on the idea.


	60. Chapter 60

A tremor shook the mindscape.

Allison turned to Al and said, "Keep unlocking caskets while I check it out."

"I'm stronger than you," Al argued. "I should go."

"I can't revive the others until you open their caskets," Allison insisted. "And we might need their powers sooner than expected." She looked at the ceiling, trying to imagine what was happening far above their heads in the conscious realm. If the tremors were being felt this deep in the subconscious, it had to be serious.

"What if you don't come back?" Al asked.

They stared at each other a moment. Al could only unlock caskets, and Allison could only revive personalities. If either of them got lost or killed, the remaining personalities would stay dead...forever.

Allison finally said, "Do as much as you can." She refused to acknowledge the possibility that she might not return.

When Allison reached the conscious realm, she found that Alice was awake. But she couldn't reveal her presence to Alice because Alice was in denial about having a split personality. She could render Alice unconscious and take full control of the body, but that might be dangerous without knowing the situation. So she chose to remain an observer, lingering just outside Alice's awareness, where she could still sense everything that was happening to the body.

Alice was lying naked on an altar in an abandoned church, and Mercy was bathing her. She tried to resist Mercy, but the telekinetic force that held her down was too strong. "I can pay ransom," Alice said. "I have plenty of money. Just name your price."

Mercy laughed as she dipped the washcloth in a tub of water. "This isn't about filthy lucre! You're the chosen one, and I have to bring you to the lord pristine and unblemished." She rubbed the cloth over Alice's face and neck. Alice was beautiful, like Bruce, and Mercy could see the family resemblance in their eyes-big, brown, soulful eyes, begging for the sweet relief of death.

Alice blanched when Mercy began washing her breasts, and it was the same expression Bruce had when Mercy pulled down his pants. Bruce had tried valiantly to awaken the Hulk, but Mercy extinguished all hope the moment she forced herself on him. Watching his hope fade was like watching a soul die. It was delightful.

Mercy longed to relive that experience, so she leaned forward and kissed Alice passionately on the lips, deliberately triggering her fear of rape. She penetrated Alice's mind easily and took a moment to relish the terror she had unleashed. Then she probed a little deeper, searching for memories she could exploit. Alice had been well-protected by the other personalities, so the only memory worthy of notice was the date rape. Pieces were missing where Al or Allison had taken over, but there was still enough for Mercy to manipulate. She put herself in the attacker's place so she could clearly see Alice's face when he penetrated her. Then she leaned close to Alice's ear and whispered, "I can put an end to this."

"So can I!" Allison growled, slipping a scarf over Mercy's head.

Mercy had been so preoccupied with Alice that she failed to notice the other personality creeping up behind her. The scarf tightened around Mercy's neck, and she clawed at it frantically.

Alice watched in confusion as her doppelgänger strangled Mercy. A moment ago, she was being held captive in a church. Then she was reliving the assault. Now she was being rescued by...her twin? It made no sense. But none of her nightmares made sense lately. And this had to be a nightmare.

Mercy's surprise quickly faded, and she stopped struggling. "I'm just an avatar," she bragged, "a small fragment of myself that I sent into your mind. Killing me is no worse than cutting off a finger. The rest of me will survive."

Allison pulled the scarf tighter around Mercy's neck. "It will still hurt, though. Won't it?"

Mercy had been lying. Killing the avatar would do more damage than she dared to admit. So she said, "What do you want?"

"You know what I want. Let us go."

Mercy laughed. "I can't do that. The Voice of God has spoken, and I must obey."

"The Voice of God?"

Mercy rolled her eyes. "You don't even know him, and you're the chosen one? Honestly, I don't understand what he sees in you. But it's not my place to question the will of the almighty."

So that was how Jimmy had manipulated Mercy. It made sense, considering that money meant nothing to her, and she was too powerful for intimidation. "I know him," Allison snarled in Mercy's ear. "I know him better than you do. And he's no god. Let me show you." With that, Allison and Mercy disappeared into a deeper level of consciousness.

Alice's flashback ended, and found herself in the present again, still being kissed by Mercy and wondering if this bizarre nightmare would ever end.


	61. Chapter 61

Allison took Mercy to the field where she had taken Cynthia, but now the sun was shining and a few tiny buds were breaking through the scorched earth. She said, "You like tampering with memories, don't you? You like raping minds...and bodies." She shoved Mercy face down in the mud and dropped on top of her. "But you've never had the full experience, have you?" She rolled Mercy over so she could see her face. "You have no idea what you put your victims through."

Clouds were starting to gather in the sky, and Mercy watched them with bored disinterest. She wasn't afraid of Allison. Allison was just like all the other pathetic victims who lacked the resolve to commit suicide. If Allison was going to kill her, she would have done it by now. The worst Mercy expected at this point was a tantalizing peep show into the dark recesses of Allison's mind.

Then Allison leaned close to Mercy's face and said, "Behold, your god."

A single bolt of lightning struck Mercy on the forehead.

That was it. There was no thunder, no wind, not even a drop of rain.

Instead of revealing her memories to Mercy gradually, as she had with Cynthia, Allison delivered them all at once. And instead of watching them play out like a movie against the sky, Mercy experienced them directly.

Deep in the crypt, Al heard the shriek and knew immediately that something was wrong. But by the time she reached Allison, it was too late. Allison was sitting on the ground next to Mercy's avatar, staring at the motionless form.

"What have you done?" Al gasped.

Allison looked up at her slowly. "I gave her what she wanted."

Al knelt beside Mercy. "Is she dead?" she asked, checking for a pulse.

"No... It's a fate worse than death."

Al remembered that Mercy had called the abuse a fate worse than death, and she understood what Allison had done. "You gave her our memories," she said, a chill running down her spine.

Allison nodded. She felt like a rapist herself, now, having forced all those experiences into another mind.

"Do you think she'll recover?" Al asked.

"Have we recovered?" Allison replied. She had a point. Their personality was still fragmented after experiencing the abuse over a period of years. If Mercy experienced it all in a single instant, the damage had to be far worse.

Meanwhile, in the physical realm Mercy stopped kissing Alice and staggered backward, releasing her telekinetic grip. Alice jumped off the altar and pulled the cover to her chest as she backed away from Mercy.

But Mercy was no longer a threat. She sank to the floor and sat there, pale and trembling, trying to process the overwhelming accumulation of trauma.


	62. Chapter 62

When Mercy didn't return with Alice on time, James Allan Banner assumed she'd gotten distracted from her mission again, and he went inside her mind to scold her. But what he found there stunned him. Her mindscape had been obliterated. Nothing was left, not even ruins, and utter darkness prevailed. "You have failed!" he bellowed.

Mercy cringed. She recognized that voice, now, and it was not the Voice of God. It was the Devil. She remembered everything Jimmy had done to Allison as if it happened to her. And the experience awakened other memories, the long-forgotten memories of Abigail Wright.

_Abigail was strapped to an exam table, just like Allison, with the same fire coursing through her veins. "I've changed my mind," she pleaded. "I don't want to do this anymore."_

_The Devil stroked her face gently and said, "You want to live, don't you?"_

_"Of course I do. But the pain is too much. And there's no guarantee this will work. Please, just let me live out my last days in peace."_

_The Devil's face suddenly hardened. "It's too late to to turn back now," he said, reaching for the instrument Abigail dreaded most..._

"Where is she?" James demanded, bringing Mercy back to the present.

Mercy trembled and said nothing, so James began to probe her memories.

When S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived at the hotel to investigate the kidnapping, Pepper found herself missing Agent Coulson more than ever. She always knew where she stood with Phil, but with Nick she was never sure.

"I tried to warn you," Nick said as he inspected the damage.

"You didn't say Allison was being stalked by a telepath," Pepper replied bitterly.

"We weren't sure who was stalking her at the time."

"At the time?" Pepper looked sharply at Nick. "That means you know now."

"We learned who the stalker was from you. All those hits on Mercy in our database were a big clue," he said.

"You were monitoring our computer activity?"

"We monitor all the hits on our database," Nick answered. "Especially the unauthorized ones." He knew that Pepper had been hacking the system, but he allowed the activity to continue so he could keep tabs on her investigations. "What put you on Mercy's trail?"

Pepper hesitated. She didn't want to tell Nick that Bruce had been raped. But Nick was skilled at reading between the lines, so she had to proceed cautiously.

"She left physical evidence," Tony interrupted as he straggled into the room. He was still groggy from the sedation, and it showed.

So much for caution, Pepper thought.

"Where's your little friend?" Nick asked, deliberately antagonizing Tony. Angry people spoke more freely than they should.

"I'm not his keeper," Tony replied. "He can take care of himself."

"Are you sure about that?" Nick asked.

Tony got in Nick's face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

So the reports were true: Bruce had been raped. Tony wouldn't be so defensive otherwise. Nick would never wish anything like that on Bruce, but he couldn't help wondering how Mercy had managed to subdue the Hulk. Maybe S.H.I.E.L.D. could use the same technique... "I think you know what it means," he said.

Pepper realized that Nick was trying to goad Tony into talking, so she interrupted. "Mercy isn't acting as a suicide assistant this time. She's working for Jimmy Banner."

Tony glared at Pepper.

"I know you don't want S.H.I.E.L.D. involved in this," Pepper said. "But we need help. The longer Jimmy has Alice, the more danger she's in."

"The more danger we're _all_ in," Nick remarked. "How did you find out Mercy is working for James Banner?"

Pepper was learning to read Nick's poker face and saw a glimmer of acknowledgement in his expression."You just told me," Pepper admitted. "All I had was a hunch based on their history together."

Nick was impressed-and a little embarrassed. "If you ever leave Stark Industries," he said, "you have a job waiting for you at S.H.I.E.L.D."

Tony put his arm around Pepper. "She has no intention of leaving Stark Industries," he replied defensively.

"I can speak for myself!" Pepper chided playfully. Then she turned to Nick. "But he's right. I plan to be with Stark Industries a very long time." She gave Tony a peck on the cheek, and he relaxed.

So did Nick. There was no point trying to get information from either of them, now. But cooperative efforts would be easy to monitor, so he said, "You have the full resources of S.H.I.E.L.D. at your disposal."

"I already did," Pepper retorted with a sly grin.

*****  
After Nick had left, Pepper said, "Where _is_ Bruce?"

"I don't know," Tony answered. "He was already gone when I woke up."


	63. Chapter 63

Bruce was standing in front of a dilapidated house on the other side of town. A hand-painted sign in the window said Madame Oana - Fortune Teller, and a neon "Open" sign below it was struggling to stay lit. He pounded on the door until a woman wearing too much jewelry and makeup answered. "Vhat do you vant?" she asked.

"Drop the fake accent," Bruce replied testily. "I'm here for the real thing." He waved a wad of hundreds at her. Saving money was easy, since his job at Stark Industries paid well, and he had no desire for luxuries.

Madame Oana smiled and opened the door wider. "Come in." She led him down a poorly-lit hallway and through a curtain of beads into a hazy room. The heavy incense made Bruce's throat burn.

"Have a seat," Oana said, "and tell me why you're here." Discretion was the key to repeat business, so she made it a policy not to psychically probe for more information than her customers were willing to divulge.

Bruce winced as he sat at the lace-covered table. "Someone left a telepathic imprint that's causing me pain," he explained. "I want it removed." He knew Mercy had disabled the psychic shield Cynthia gave him because she'd infiltrated his dreams. And with the shield gone, it was the perfect time to get someone else to remove the imprint, someone less cautious.

Oana nodded sympathetically. She often saw cases like this. In a society that claimed to embrace diversity, mental conditions were still highly stigmatized. And people who had been victims of telepathic assault were viewed with suspicion, as if they succumbed because they were weak-willed. Most of them sought treatment outside legitimate channels to avoid having the information put in their medical records.

"I don't care how much the removal hurts," Bruce added. "I just want this thing out of my mind so I can get on with my life." He didn't tell Oana about Cynthia's warnings or his split personality because he didn't want her getting unnecessarily frightened and refusing to help.

Oana had a feeling Bruce was hiding something, but he was the best-paying client she'd had in months, and she didn't want to drive him away with too many questions. So she said, "Close your eyes and relax."

Bruce tried to relax, but his heart began to race.

Oana said, "You're putting up a barrier."

"Break it down," Bruce replied sharply.

"But that could do a lot of damage..."

"I don't care," Bruce insisted, slapping another wad of money on the table. "Get the filthy thing out!"

Oana looked at the money, then at Bruce. She wasn't sure which was more persuasive, the exorbitant fee or his desperate expression. "I tried to warn you," she said. "So if anything goes wrong, it's on you. Are you ready?"

Bruce gripped the arms of his chair and nodded once.

Since Bruce was not a true telepath, the barrier was weak and easy for Oana to break.

There was a flash of pain in Bruce's head, and he suddenly felt violated. Then Oana removed the implant, and it hurt even more...

_Brian had broken young Bruce yet again, and he walked away smugly, leaving his son impaled with the broom handle. When Bruce stopped crying, he had to remove it himself-a slow, humiliating task that hurt as much as the assault._

One after another, Bruce began reliving every rape he'd ever experienced... And there were so many. Was there a single beating that didn't end in rape? Or a single day without a beating?

Deep within the mindscape, the Hulk sensed danger and came charging to the rescue. When he reached the conscious realm, he found that Bruce had opened the pit where all memories of sexual abuse were stored. The Hulk had been releasing those memories slowly to avoid overwhelming Bruce. But now Bruce had ruined everything. The pain and violation were more than Bruce could bear, and the Hulk had no choice but to intervene. He could take it. He was the one who endured most of the abuse to begin with. But he was angry at Bruce for getting into this situation. It was just like childhood. Bruce would do something foolish-like show off his freakish intellect-and draw his father's wrath. Then the Hulk would have to take the abuse.

The Hulk banished Bruce to the subconscious and assumed full control of the body, stepping into a wall of pain. Bruce was a weakling who thought Mercy's implant was bad. But that was just the pain of one incident. Now, because of Bruce's meddling, the Hulk would have to relive countless episodes. He gritted his teeth and let out a long, guttural groan that sounded like a growl. When he opened his eyes, Oana was staring at him, pale and trembling, and he quickly surmised that she had something to do with his predicament. He slammed his fist on the table, breaking it in two, and Oana fled the room.

The Hulk chased her, and she ran into a back room where an illegal card game was in progress. The thug guarding the door pulled his gun and fired at the Hulk. The bullets ricocheted, and the Hulk yanked the gun away and crushed it. The others started scrambling for their weapons as the Hulk grabbed the table and overturned it. "Joe* sends his regards," he snarled. Then they began shooting him. The sting of bullets bouncing off his skin was a welcome distraction from the memories that were still coursing through his body, and he raised his arms to bathe in the sensation.

The crooks didn't know how to respond. Fear and anger they understood, but this... One by one they stopped firing and stared at the Hulk in puzzlement. When the shooting died down, the Hulk's memories grew stronger, infuriating him. So he picked up the table and threw it at the criminals. They started firing at him again and didn't stop until they heard police sirens. Then they disappeared. By the time the police arrived, the Hulk was the only one left.

* * *

*In the Hulk comics, Joe Fixit is another of Bruce's personalities who is a crime boss


	64. Chapter 64

Bruce still hadn't returned after breakfast, so Tony and Pepper decided to check out and wait for him in the lobby.

"Who's going to pay for the damage?" the clerk asked as they were settling the bill.

"I will," Tony replied, handing him a charge card.

The clerk frowned. "This isn't a joke. We have-"

"Do you know who this is?" Pepper asked, gesturing at Tony with her head.

The clerk read the name on the card and looked at Tony. Tony lowered his sunglasses and looked back.

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you, Mr. Stark," the clerk stammered. But he was saved from further embarrassment when Tony's phone rang. Tony stepped away to answer it while Pepper finished the paperwork.

When Pepper turned around, Tony said, "That was Thor. He knows where Bruce went."

"Where?" Pepper asked.

Tony led her to a television in the lobby and pointed. A reporter was saying, "Police responding to reports of shots fired were surprised to discover a green monster-"

Pepper flinched. "He hates that word."

On television, the Hulk broke off a light pole and started swinging it like a club at anyone who approached him.

"Thor's headed there now," Tony said. "We'd better go help him."

Tony's phone rang again. This time it was Nick Fury. "The National Guard has been activated," Nick said. "And S.H.I.E.L.D. is on the way. You have ten minutes to get your little friend in line before all hell breaks loose."

"I'd be there by now," Tony snapped, "if you hadn't interrupted me."

"You're welcome," Nick said and hung up.

Tony told Pepper, who had already activated her portable suit. "It was nice of him to call," she responded as the armor crept over her body. "He didn't have to give you any warning."

"Nice is not a word I'd apply to Nick," Tony said, activating his own suit. "When did you two become such good buddies?"

"We're not. He irritates me to no end. But I understand him."

"You understand everybody," Tony quipped.

People in the lobby had noticed the two getting into their suits and gathered to watch the famous Iron Man in action. But when Tony's armor finished attaching itself, the system voice said, "Left arm failed to deploy."

Tony looked at his arm and swore. The suit couldn't cover his cast, so the injured arm was vulnerable-and without thrusters. It had been awkward enough to maneuver when he had the armored cast because he had to keep his arm bent. But now, without power on that side, flight was going to be even more difficult. And Tony didn't have time to practice.

"Do you want a lift?" Pepper asked when they got to the parking lot.

"I can fly with three thrusters," Tony insisted. He shot into the air, flipped twice, and hovered above the cars, wobbling precariously. "I just can't steer."

Pepper smiled behind her mask and joined Tony. She took his hand to steady him and said, "Don't worry. The media will think we're holding hands to be romantic."

When they arrived, the Hulk was using the light pole to bat Thor like a baseball. But no matter how many times the Hulk knocked Thor out of the neighborhood, he came back.

"Praise Odin, you are here!" Thor said. Then he saw Tony's arm. "But your armor is incomplete."

"I can still fight," Tony said, teetering as he fired a shot to demonstrate. "And I'm getting used to flying with three thrusters."

Thor raised an eyebrow. "You flitter about like a fjothr_* _in the wind. You would do well to fight on solid earth."

"Leave Dr. Blake at the clinic," Tony retorted.

Thor barreled out his chest as if demonstrating that he was no longer Dr. Blake. "Very well. We shall battle side-by-side like-"

Thor's grand speech was interrupted when Pepper shot between them. She had started fighting the Hulk while they were arguing, and he swatted her into the next block.

Tony and Thor turned to see the Hulk pursuing Pepper-and they were in his way. They parted just in time for the Hulk to pass through. Then they closed in from behind and began attacking him. He turned to fight them, but Pepper shouted, "No! Lead him this way, out of town."

They took turns letting the Hulk swing at them, gradually luring him to the edge of town. But the military was already arriving. The soldiers fired at the Hulk, and he responded by rolling six of their humvees.

"Call General Julius," Tony barked at the cellphone in his suit. He still had plenty of military connections from his days as a weapons designer. When the general answered, Tony said, "Tell your troops to hold their fire; we've got this under control."

"It doesn't look like you have it under control," the general replied. "It looks like you're getting your ass kicked."

Julius sounded just like Nick Fury, and Tony wondered if sarcasm was part of their training. "We're drawing him out of town," Tony explained, "and into the desert where he can't hurt anyone."

"Except you," Julius answered. "Nice cast, by the way. Did he do that?"

"I had an accident testing a new suit," Tony lied. "Now, tell your men to back off!"

Pepper crashed into Tony, cutting the call short, and they careened out of control for several hundred yards before they were able to right themselves.

"That had to be a home run," Tony joked.

"They're soldiers," Pepper said.

"What?"

"You said men, but some of them are women."

"I don't think this is the time to-"

"Noble deeds are not made of idle chatter," Thor declared as he sailed between them.

"Your turn," Pepper said to Tony.

They continued to lead the Hulk away from the city, and the troops followed for a while in case he turned back. But eventually the general decided the Hulk was no longer a threat and ordered everyone to stand down.

"What do we do now?" Thor asked when he saw the troops leaving.

"Keep him busy until he calms down," Tony answered.

"That could be a while," Pepper said. "Too bad Al isn't here to talk him down... Wait a minute, what about Cynthia?"

"She could put him to sleep," Tony agreed.

"No, I mean she's a psychiatrist. She might be able to talk him through this."

Tony rolled his eyes, but Pepper didn't see it because he had his visor down. "Call Cynthia Regis," he ordered his suit.

Tony was still on the phone with Cynthia when she materialized in in front of him. "I am _not_ sedating him," she announced. "He's not a threat to anyone."

"I beg to differ," Thor said as he dodged a flying boulder.

Cynthia put her hands on her hips. "If you'd stop antagonizing him, Donald, he'd leave you alone." She sounded like a mother scolding a child.

Cynthia used the name "Donald" on purpose, and it worked. Thor didn't change into his physician's persona, but he did start to see the situation differently. The Hulk was not an enemy to be defeated, but a patient to be treated. He stopped retaliating against the Hulk and began using evasive maneuvers. After a while, the Hulk gave up attacking him and turned to the rock formations around him.

"Aren't you going to talk to him and calm him down?" Pepper asked.

"Why should I?" Cynthia replied. "He's not doing any harm."

"Except to the rocks," Tony observed. The Hulk was turning a massive pinnacle into a pile of gravel.

"He needs to express his anger," Cynthia explained.

"So you're saying we should just wait?" Pepper asked. "Why did you bother to come?"

"I thought you wanted me to evaluate him," Cynthia answered.

"He's big, he's strong, and he's ticked," Tony snapped. "Evaluation finished."

But Thor said, "What is your professional opinion?"

"I think he's having a flashback," Cynthia answered.

"Flashback?" Tony raised his visor. "Bruce told me he was having those yesterday." He looked at the Hulk, who was stomping the remains of the pinnacle into powder. "It must be one hell of a memory."

Cynthia said, "Flashbacks are especially intense-"

"I know," Tony interrupted. Thor gave him a quizzical look. "Afghanistan," he explained.

Now Pepper lifted her visor. "What do you think triggered it?" she asked.

Cynthia studied the Hulk. It was tempting to read his mind and get the answer quickly, but without his permission, that would be telepathic rape. "It could be anything," she admitted, "even something that seems unrelated but has an indirect association... Where was he when this started?"

Pepper thought back to the news broadcast. The reporter had been standing in front of a house with sign in the window. "He went to see Madame Oana. She's a fortune teller."

Cynthia nodded. "I know who she is. Her powers are legitimate, but her business is not. She takes foolhardy risks with her clients, and I have to clean up the mess."

"Why hasn't she been shut down?" Pepper asked.

"She has mob connections," Cynthia answered. She looked back a the Hulk, who showed no sign of calming down any time soon, and said, "I just hope the damage she's done isn't permanent this time."

* * *

*Old Norse for _feather_


	65. Chapter 65

Tony convinced the others that there was no longer any need for all of them to monitor the Hulk, and he sent them away, promising to call if anything changed. Then he perched on a rock and waited. The Hulk was still going strong when Pepper brought lunch...and dinner.

The sun was setting when the Hulk half-heartedly crushed one last rock and let his hands drop to his sides. Then he stood still for several minutes, watching the sky change colors. Tony continued to observe him from a distance, waiting for him to change back to Bruce. But nothing happened.

Tony finally flew over to the Hulk and said, "Why don't you come back with me?"

"Go away!" the Hulk snarled.

"It gets cold out here at night," Tony persisted. "Let me take you some place warm and-"

"Hulk strong. Hulk not need house."

"It's not good for you to be alone."

The Hulk stamped his foot at Tony like he was trying to frighten a stray dog. "Hulk smash!"

But Tony had taken plenty of hits from the Hulk, and the prospect of another didn't scare him. "Stop talking like that," Tony replied. "I know how smart you really are."

The Hulk knocked Tony into a pile of rubble. Then he plopped down on the ground and sat quietly, lost in thought. He wasn't physically tired, but he was emotionally exhausted. Now that the anger had worn off, he could feel the grief it had been masking, grief that made his whole body ache. He felt like crying. But he wouldn't, of course. Tears were a sign of weakness, and weakness invited attack.

After Tony pulled himself out of the rubble, he decided not to approach the Hulk for a while. He had never seen the Hulk so sad, and he felt like a voyeur. The Hulk needed privacy.

Darkness had fallen across the desert before the Hulk came to Tony and said, "Don't tell anyone."

"About what?"

"Hulk play dumb," the Hulk replied, doing an exaggerated imitation of himself.

"Why do you do that?" Tony asked. "Why do you let people underestimate you?"

The Hulk stared at the horizon, remembering... Brian saw his son's intelligence as proof he was a monster, and achievements that would make any other father proud led to merciless beatings followed by sexual assault... The Hulk looked down at Tony and said, "Smart people get in trouble."

"I don't think that's necessarily true," Tony began.

The Hulk curled his lip. "It is for me."

Tony couldn't argue with that. Bruce had certainly paid a high price for his intellect, and there was no telling what the Hulk had been through. "Come on, let's go back to the hotel," Tony said, fully expecting to get punched again.

But the Hulk raised an eyebrow.

"It's not the hotel you destroyed last night," Tony explained.

Both eyebrows shot up.

"We can sneak you in."

The Hulk smirked. He was obviously too big to sneak anywhere.

"We'll bribe some people."

*****  
While Alice hurriedly dressed, Al and Allison argued in the subconscious about what to do next.

"I say we dump Mercy from our mind and teleport out of here," Al declared.

Allison shook her head. "We need to keep her prisoner. She can't hurt us as long as we have her avatar."

"I'm not sure about that," Al said. "What if she recovers?"

Allison looked at Mercy, who was still catatonic. "I don't think she's going to recover any time soon."

Al was skeptical.

"I want her out of our mind as much as you do," Allison continued. "But we have to think about the big picture. Look what happened when you tried to eliminate Jimmy's serpents too quickly."

Al balled her fist. In the past, she would have punched Allison. But she'd been changing lately. She still felt those impulses, but now she was able to resist them. And if she thought about it, Allison was right. Disabling all those alarms had forced Jimmy to act sooner than he would otherwise. "Fine. She stays," Al said. "But we keep her locked up and under guard at all times."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Allison agreed.

Mercy cringed and covered her head with her hands.

"What did you do to her?" Al asked, thinking Allison had used telepathy.

"Nothing."

"Then why is she..." A realization dawned on Al. If Allison hadn't done anything, and the newly liberated personalities were still in the crypt waiting for instructions, there was only one possibility left. "Oh, crap! What's happening out there?"

In the physical realm, Jimmy had burst through the church doors.

Alice ran to embrace him. "Dad! You're alive! And you came to rescue me from that awful woman."

Jimmy turned to look at Mercy, who shrank away in terror. Then he gave Alice a beguiling smile. "Of course I'm here. I wouldn't let anything bad happen to my little girl." He stroked Alice softly on the cheek.

In the mindscape, Allison vomited.

"What's wrong?" Al asked.

"I feel like I did when..." She trailed off, remembering how Jimmy would caress her face to put her off guard. "Oh, God! Jimmy is here!"

Al said, "I'll teleport us to safety."

But Allison grabbed her hand. "No, wait. You might hurt him."

"After everything he's done, you're worried about hurting him?"

Allison nodded, and there were tears in her eyes. "He's still our father," she said.

Al relented. "I won't do anything to hurt him," she promised. "But I should take control of the body. I can tolerate more pain than anyone."

"No! I need you to unlock caskets. We've got to have all our powers."

"What about Alice?"

Allison sighed and closed her eyes.

"You know she doesn't have any defenses," Al persisted. "She's never needed any."

Allison clenched her jaw and swallowed. When she finally opened her eyes, they were red. "It's time she learned who Jimmy really is."

Al's eyes widened in horror. "She's not ready! You saw how she handled the rape, and that was a mere acquaintance. This would kill her!"

Allison straightened her back and sighed. "If it gets bad enough, one of the other personalities can take over for Alice. But you and I have work to finish."


	66. Chapter 66

"This is not going to work," Pepper complained. She had driven a rental car out to meet Tony and the Hulk in the desert, and now she was attempting to cover the Hulk's green complexion with make-up.

"It looks good to me," Tony said, shining a light from his gauntlet on the Hulk's face.

"But the lights in the hotel are brighter," Pepper reminded him.

"I can simulate that," Tony replied, increasing the intensity.

The Hulk punched Tony in the chest and sent him sailing twenty yards. "Too bright!" he barked. "It hurts my eyes."

Pepper said, "That wasn't very nice."

The Hulk narrowed his eyes. "He's not in Amarillo, is he?"

Pepper got the point: the Hulk could have knocked Tony much farther than he did, but he was holding back.

Tony flew over to them and landed just out of the Hulk's reach. "You can't go around hitting people, even if you pull your punches," he explained.

The Hulk gave him a deadpan look.

"Actually, I suppose you can...and do," Tony amended. "But it attracts attention. And you want to be left alone, don't you?"

The Hulk curled his lip. But instead of hitting Tony again, he grunted and looked away. Before his exposure to gamma radiation, he was punished for being weak. Now he was persecuted for being strong. There was no winning...

"That's the best I can do," Pepper said, stepping back and squinting at her work.

Tony tilted his head and studied the Hulk's face.

The Hulk clenched his jaw and prepared to defend himself. His father used to scrutinize him the same way, looking for excuses to beat him.

"It's good enough," Tony declared. "We've already paid off the hotel. We just have to sneak him past any guests we meet in the hall. Did you bring that bath robe?"

"It's the largest they had," Pepper answered, holding it up.

The Hulk barely managed to squeeze into it.

"Don't move around too much," Tony told him. "We don't want it ripping before you get to the room."

*****  
"Where have you been all these years?" Alice asked her father as they walked to his car. "I thought you were dead."

"Some very bad people were after you," James lied. "And I had to keep them away." He paused to stroke her face. "But you're safe, now."

In the mindscape Allison vomited, and Mercy cringed.

"That does it!" Al said, slamming her fist on the casket she was unlocking. "I'm going to kick his ass!"

"No! I can take it. Just finish what you're doing."

Al looked at Allison sideways.

"No, really, I'm fine," Allison insisted. "He's just doing that face thing. You know me. I'm really sensitive to it."

"You know what comes next," Al said.

Allison closed her eyes, as if that would shut out the memories. "I know. That's why we need to hurry."

*****  
"How are you doing back there?" Pepper asked the Hulk, glancing at him in the rear view mirror.

The Hulk grunted. He was sitting sideways in the back seat of the car, hunched over to keep from hitting his head on the ceiling.

"Not enough leg room," Tony joked.

"I don't suppose you'd consider changing back to Bruce?" Pepper asked. The Hulk had snarled at her when she suggested it the first time, but maybe he would see things differently now. "Bruce would fit better in the car, and he'd be easier to get into the hotel."

"No! Banner is incompetent."

Tony turned to look at the Hulk. The Hulk often complained that Bruce was weak. But this was the first time Tony had heard him say _incompetent_. "Why do you say that?" Tony asked.

The Hulk ignored Tony's question and stared out the window at the darkness behind them.

"Is it because he went to see that fortune teller?" Tony persisted. The Hulk looked back at Tony, and Tony could tell he'd guessed right. "She was probably removing Mercy's telepathic implant and triggered flashbacks."

"Banner told you?" the Hulk asked. If Bruce had been talking about the implant, Tony must also know about the rape.

"Yes," Tony replied. "But there's no reason to be ashamed, it's not your-"

The Hulk bashed out the rear window.

"-fault," Tony said, finishing his sentence. "But that," he continued, pointing at the window, "that was your fault."

"Make Banner pay for it," the Hulk growled. "I pay for his mistakes."

Pepper stopped the car. "That's it! You're walking back to the hotel. Or leaping. Or whatever it is you do."

Tony said, "If he does that, he'll draw too much attention."

"I'm not driving with him in the car. What will he break next?"

"Fine. I'll drive," Tony declared.

"Are you kidding? I'm more scared of your driving than I am of him!"

The Hulk opened the door and started squeezing out.

"What are you doing?" Tony asked.

"I'm staying out here," the Hulk announced.

"But we need your help finding Allison," Tony said.

The Hulk stopped and looked at Tony.

"Bruce's cousin," Tony explained.

"She's my cousin, too!" the Hulk snapped.

"Mercy kidnapped her," Tony said, bracing himself for another of the Hulk's outbursts.

"We think her father is behind it," Pepper added.

The Hulk ripped the door off the car and jumped out.

"Why did you have to say that?" Tony asked Pepper.

"I wasn't the one who made him break the window," Pepper reminded Tony.

"No one makes the Hulk do anything," Tony said. "Pop the trunk. I need my suit."


	67. Chapter 67

The Hulk was hurt that Tony had referred to Allison as Bruce's cousin, not his. Until recently, Bruce barely knew Allison existed, preferring instead the company of his other cousin, Jennifer.* Jennifer was the lucky one who grew up in a safe, stable home. She didn't have harsh restrictions like Allison, so she visited Bruce frequently. Whenever she was around, Bruce became engrossed in her innocent games and forgot his hellish secrets for a little while.

But the Hulk could never forget. Maybe that's why Allison was his favorite cousin, though he rarely saw her. The few times she did visit, her father was always with her, resting his hands on her shoulders like she might float away. Even as a child, the Hulk knew. He could tell by Allison's stiff, guarded posture and timid obedience. She was scared. It was the same fear the Hulk felt whenever Brian entered the room and towered over him, watching for mistakes.

Allison and the Hulk never spoke of their fear...or the abuse that caused it. The risk of retribution was too high, and their shame was too great. But the young Hulk would lie awake at night, long after Bruce fell asleep, and fantasize about running away with his cousin. They were children, but they were prodigies. Surely they could find a way to make it on their own. They would go to a safe place, far from belts and broomsticks, and start a new life together as brother and sister, taking care of each other the way a family should. It never happened, of course, and in retrospect the Hulk felt foolish for ever thinking it was possible. But his concern for Allison never waned. And now she was missing.

"We don't have time for these temper tantrums," Tony said, startling the Hulk. He had donned his suit and flown to the Hulk's side.

The Hulk stopped walking and looked at Tony. "We don't have time for Banner's pity party."

Tony landed and stared up at the Hulk. "The abuse was worse than he thought, wasn't it?"

The Hulk flushed, and a hint of green showed through his disguise. It was bad enough Tony knew about the rape, but the incest, too? Was there anything Bruce _hadn't_ told him? "Banner talks too much," the Hulk said and started walking again.

"No, he doesn't talk enough," Tony replied, lifting off the ground. "He's worse than you."

The Hulk glanced at Tony and kept walking.

"At least you express your feelings," Tony explained, hovering next to the Hulk.

"Like this?" the Hulk asked, punching Tony in the face.

Tony had his visor down, so he wasn't injured. But he found himself careening across the desert.

Pepper had been watching from the car, and she ran to the Hulk. "What's wrong with you?" she demanded breathlessly. "Tony is the closest thing you have to a friend!"

The Hulk looked down at Pepper. She wasn't wearing her suit, but she was too angry to be afraid. "Hulk not need friends," he said, mimicking his public persona. Then he leaped away.

Tony returned a few minutes later. "Where's the big guy?" he asked, lifting his visor.

Pepper was sitting on the hood of the car, wrapped in a sweater. "I don't know... I should have worn my suit."

Tony's face hardened. "Did he hurt you?" The Hulk was not one to attack innocent bystanders, but Loki had manipulated him into going after Natasha. And if Loki could do it, so could Mercy.

"Oh, no!" Pepper responded. "He leaped away. If I'd been wearing my suit, I might have been able to follow him."

Tony swore loudly and pounded his fist on the car. Since he was still wearing his suit, he left a sizable dent. But it didn't matter. He already had to replace the car. "This is the worst possible time for him to run off! Lord knows what Jimmy has been doing to Allison while we've been chasing him around."

Pepper agreed. "I think it's time to let him go. We can look for Allison on our own." She opened the trunk and pulled out her suit. The car still ran, but it wasn't road worthy. So they were going to have to fly back to the hotel. But Iron Man would get a warmer reception than the Hulk. "Do you think Bruce will ever come back?" she asked as the suit unfolded.

"I don't know," Tony answered. "The big guy is really mad at him... But I hope so."

* * *

*In the comics, playing with Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk) was one of Bruce's few positive memories of childhood.


	68. Chapter 68

Most families would talk for hours after being reunited-but not the Banners. Alice asked her father a few questions, but he kept responding with vague answers until she gave up. Then she tried telling him about her life, but James Allan Banner was too absorbed in his own thoughts to acknowledge her. So Alice stared quietly out the car window.

When Bruce had asked Alice about her father, she said he was strict-but that was an understatement. To average humans, he would seem abusive. But the injuries he inflicted weren't that serious, considering her ability to heal. Meta human children could be quite dangerous and required firm discipline to avoid becoming deadly tyrants.

Alice tried to remember a time when she posed a serious threat, but she couldn't. Still, there had to be plenty of examples, with her powers. She tried to think of something destructive she could do with invisibility and rapid healing, but she drew a blank. She had other powers, though, lethal ones... What were they? "I'm still having memory problems," she confessed.

James glanced at her and grunted. "That's because we never got to finish your treatments."

Alice felt her stomach drop. She remembered going to her father's basement lab as a child to receive medical attention, but she couldn't remember what happened down there. All she knew was that she dreaded it and cried every time. What were the treatments for, anyway? They were supposed to help her memory, but she seemed more forgetful after each session. "I haven't had a treatment since you disappeared, and I've been fine," she said.

James kept his eyes on the road, but his lips tightened. "You've been extremely lucky," he said.

"I guess so," Alice agreed. Children were never fond of needles. That was probably why she cried. But a good father would do anything to save his daughter. "What's my condition called?" she asked. "I forgot." She could remember everything she learned in school, every book she'd ever read, but not the details of her own life.

James gripped the steering wheel tighter and said, "It's so rare it doesn't have a name."

"I'm a research scientist, now. Maybe I can help you find a cure."

"There is no cure!" James snapped, and Alice cringed. Then James sighed. "Look, I've tried everything, and the best we can do is keep it under control."

There was a long pause. Finally Alice said, "Do I have the same thing as Bruce?"

James turned red. "I told you never to speak of that killer's son!"

"He doesn't seem that bad-"

The tires squealed as James slammed on the brakes. "He doesn't seem that bad, does he?" James asked, throwing the gear in park.

Alice's mouth went dry as she realized she wasn't too old for a beating. "What I meant is that he seems nice, but appearances are deceiving," she lied. James reached for the door handle, and Alice's heart began to race. "You know, I've been selfish and ungrateful, asking all these questions. The important thing is that we're together again, right?"

James put his hands back on the steering wheel, and Alice breathed a sigh of relief. "You're right," he said. "We should just enjoy each other's company."

Alice felt dirty, but she gave her father a plastic smile and nodded.

They continued traveling in silence until they arrived at a research facility hidden in the mountains.

"This is my lab," James declared. "You'll be safe here."

"Shouldn't we tell the police about the woman who kidnapped me?"

"What good would it do?" James asked. "She's too powerful to capture."

Alice remembered that her father had arrived after Mercy released her, so he never saw Mercy use her abilities. "How do you know she's meta human?"

James narrowed his eyes, and Alice swallowed nervously. "She's a well-known criminal," he explained. "I'm surprised you haven't heard of her."

Alice started to ask why Mercy would be interested in her, but she thought better of it. Her father was in a volatile mood, and the years had been kind to him. He was still more than capable of breaking a few bones to prove a point.

"I have a room for you," James announced, changing the subject. He led her to an austere suite. "The bathroom's in there, and you'll find some clothes in the drawer. You still wear extra small, right?"

Alice nodded.

"It's getting late, and I'm tired," James continued. "Let's get some rest, and we can resume your treatments in the morning."

"So soon?" Alice asked. "I just got here."

James clenched his fist, and Alice felt sick. "We ought to start tonight, but I'm giving you a break," James said. "You know how dangerous your condition is. You're lucky you survived this long without treatment."

"You're right," Alice agreed. "We should start first thing in the morning." James relaxed his hand, but Alice still felt uneasy. She had avoided a beating-for now-but what would tomorrow bring?

James said, "Good night." After he left, Alice let out a long sigh of relief. Then she heard the door click.

In the hallway, James tapped a code into the keypad by the door to set the lock and activate the power-dampening field. Then he leaned against the door and closed his eyes. He was safe.


	69. Chapter 69

In the mindscape, Al unlocked the last of the caskets. "I'm going to check on Alice while you finish reviving the others," she said.

"Be careful," Allison replied. "And don't do anything to hurt Jimmy."

Al rolled her eyes. "I won't."

When Al reached the conscious realm, Alice was trying to open the door. Al took control and tried it, herself. But it was definitely locked. Since no one was around to get hurt, she attempted to teleport. But she couldn't.

"Shit!" Al shouted when she reappeared in the crypt.

Allison was leaning over an open coffin and looked up. "What's wrong?"

"We're trapped."

"What do you mean, we're trapped?"

"He has us locked in a room with a power-dampening field... I knew we should have teleported when we had the chance!"

Allison straightened and sighed. "It's my fault," she admitted. She wished Al was still in the habit of beating her because the guilt was overwhelming.

Instead, Al punched the wall. "I really don't want to go through this again," she growled.

"Maybe we don't have to," Allison said, her face brightening. "Remember, power-dampening fields have to be specifically programmed for the individual, power by power."

"So?" Al asked. "I'm sure Jimmy covered everything."

Allison gave Al a sly look. "What if we have new powers he doesn't know about?"

"He knows all our powers," Al answered. "He gave them to us."

Allison turned to Mercy, who was wrapped in chains and sitting on the floor, staring at nothing.

"You mean, tap into her powers?" Al asked incredulously.

Allison nodded.

"Can we even do that?"

"We won't know until we try."

"I'm not against taking risks with the body," Al began.

"I know," Allison interrupted, remembering Al's penchant for jumping off buildings.

"But the body is either going to heal or die," Al explained. "This... This is our mind we're talking about. If this fails, we could end up like her." Al pointed at Mercy. "And we might never recover. Is that how you want to spend the rest of your life?"

"It's better than being Jimmy's guinea pig..."

Al stared at Allison.

Allison swallowed and fought the urge to look away.

"It's not the pain that scares you, is it?" Al asked.

"No," Allison admitted. She didn't have to say more. Al knew that Allison was born when the sexual abuse began.

"Maybe he won't do that now because we're older," Al said.

Allison laughed bitterly. "You think he has an age preference? This isn't about sexual attraction. It's about control."

Al's face went slack as she realized Allison was right. "Okay, let's try it," Al agreed. "But only after you've revived everyone."

"That shouldn't take long," Allison said, bending over to kiss the corpse, which looked just like her.

Al shifted her weight. She knew the bodies were just visual representations of unconscious personality fragments, but each one reminded her of the torture that put them here. After days of reviving personalities, the memories were wearing her down, and she needed a break. "I'll meet with the others and start answering their questions," she said.

After Al left, Mercy shifted her gaze to Allison, whose back was turned.

While the Hulk had control of the body, doing who knows what, Bruce was trapped in a dark, confined corner of the mindscape. The Hulk knew Bruce was claustrophobic and often put him here for punishment. _I should be used to this_ _by now_, Bruce thought. But he still felt abject terror any time he was trapped. If this had been the physical realm, he would have transformed into the Hulk and escaped long ago. But in the mindscape he was forced to endure the fear. He'd been yelling and pounding on the door for hours, now, and he was exhausted. So he sank to the floor and hugged his knees to his chest to stop shaking.

Bruce felt like a child again, locked in the closet, waiting for his father to return. Whether it was his father or the Hulk, the prospects were the same. If he were lucky, the Hulk would release him and pretend nothing had happened. But it was more likely that the Hulk would come back to beat him. And there was always the possibility that he'd be stuck here forever. In a physical closet, he'd die of dehydration. But in the mindscape, he'd live as long as the Hulk did. And that could be a very long time trapped in a very small space.

Bruce heard footsteps, and a crack of light appeared under the door. The door opened, and the Hulk stood silhouetted in the frame.

"Where is she?" the Hulk demanded, pulling Bruce to his feet.

"Who's controlling the body? Are we asleep?" Bruce asked.

The Hulk sucker punched Bruce and kneed him in the face when he doubled over. "I ask the questions! Where is she?"

Bruce felt hot blood drip from his nose, and he wiped it off. "I don't know," he said, still out of breath.

The Hulk grabbed Bruce by the throat and pushed him up the wall. Like everything else in the mindscape, oxygen was just a metaphor. But strangulation was still a frightening sensation, and Bruce struggled to free himself. Then Mercy was on top of him again... Bruce was still having flashbacks when the Hulk put him down.

"Where is she?"

Bruce wiped the water from his eyes, leaving streaks of blood on his cheeks. "I...don't...know..." he gasped.

The Hulk grabbed Bruce's arm and twisted it, shoving him face first into the wall. "Where is she?" the Hulk growled in Bruce's ear.

Bruce shivered as he remembered Brian attacking him the same way, right before... "If I knew, I'd tell you! I love her, too."

The Hulk released his grip. But before Bruce could turn around, the Hulk left and locked the door behind him.


	70. Chapter 70

While Alice sat alone in the dark, worrying about the morning, an army of look-alikes was gathered around Allison and Mercy in the subconscious.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Al asked yet again.

"I'm the only one who can," Allison answered. She was the strongest telepath among them, and the only one who stood a chance of overpowering Mercy from within.

"Be careful," Al said, moving back.

"I will," Allison reassured her. She stepped into Mercy, like a ghost passing through a wall, and Mercy's avatar transformed.

"Are you okay?" Al asked.

"I'm fine. Why?"

"You look like...like you and Mercy had a love child."

One of the other personalities snickered because it was true. The new avatar had brown hair with purple streaks and looked like a genetic blend of Allison and Mercy.

Al looked deep into the avatar's eyes and tried not to shudder. They were brown, like Allison's eyes, but they had Mercy's soulless stare. It was the look of someone without a conscience. "What's it like in there?" Al asked.

The creepy eyes grew distant as Allison concentrated on Mercy's mindscape. "It's dark and empty," she answered. "Wait a minute, I'm stepping in something..." She started screaming, "Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!"

Al grabbed the avatar's shoulders. "What? What's wrong?"

"It's Mercy. She's everywhere. I'm stepping in her-what's left of her, anyway. There are pieces of her everywhere...bloody bits stuck to everything. My God, what have I done?" The avatar sank to the floor and sobbed. "I didn't know... I swear, I didn't know... I wouldn't have done it if I'd known."

Al's face hardened. "Mercy is a serial killer who raped Bruce and kidnapped us. She got what she deserved."

"That's easy for you to say," Allison replied. "You're not seeing this. You don't know what I've done. It's not me. It's not something I would do...to anyone."

"But she's still alive, right?" Al asked. "You got into her mind, so she has to be alive."

The avatar looked up, and her tears seemed out of place in those vacant eyes. "I don't know if you'd call this living... There's nothing left that I can recognize as human, not even organs. It's just blood and tissue...like she exploded."

Al glanced around at the other personalities and said, "If you think about it, we're all fragments of the same person. But we were exposed to one trauma at a time, so each fragment emerged fully formed. In Mercy's case, everything happened at once, so her pieces are undeveloped."

The avatar stood up slowly. "Do you think these pieces can grow? Do you think she might be...like us, some day?"

"Sure," Al lied. She knew the chances that Mercy would recover, even partially, were slim. But Allison needed to have hope that the damage she'd done could be repaired. "Are there any powers left that you can use?"

"No," the avatar said, wiping her tears away. "But I have a body." She smiled. And on that face, it looked wicked.

Alice was still awake in the early morning hours when James came back and turned on the light, startling her. Alice squinted at him and said, "You locked me in."

James sat on the bed next to Alice and stroked her face. "I didn't lock you in. I locked Mercy out."

Alice flinched. She didn't like having her face touched, but she didn't know why.

"I brought you something," James said, holding out a power-dampening collar. "Go ahead. Put it on."

Alice frowned. "What is it?"

"It tracks your vital signs," James lied, "so I can monitor your condition and adjust your treatment."

Alice turned the collar over, examining it closely, and said, "I've designed some biometric devices, myself, but I've never seen one like this." She looked up. "Do you mind if I take it apart to see how it's made?"

"Just put the damn thing on!" James ordered.

Alice cringed and wrapped the device around her neck. She heard a click as it locked in place, and she started fiddling with the latch. "I can't get it off."

"You're not supposed to take it off." James snarled. Then he stood up and said, "Come on, let's go to the lab. We need to start your treatment as soon as possible."

"Before breakfast?"

Fire shot through the right side of Alice's face as James backhanded her. She touched her cheek gingerly and said, "Yes, Father." She knew any other response would lead to a beating, and she silently cursed herself for putting her father in this mood.

When they got to the lab, James said, "Get undressed."

"Where's my gown?"

James clenched his jaw. "You never needed one before," he said.

_Before?_ Alice thought. _Has this happened before?_ "I'm older, now," she replied, pulling her shoulder to her ear. She expected to get hit again.

But instead, James let out an exasperated sigh and rummaged through a drawer. "Here," he snapped, throwing a hospital gown at Alice.

The gown landed on the floor, and Alice picked it up slowly. "Aren't you going to turn around?" she asked James, who was watching her intently.

"Do you have something to hide?" James responded.

Alice flushed. "No. It's just embarrassing-"

"What do you have to be embarrassed about?" James demanded. "I'm your father!"

"But since the rape I've been-"

"Yes, yes, you told me about that in the car last night," James interrupted, looking at the ceiling. "But that was months ago. You need to get over it." When Alice still didn't move, he clenched his fist and added, "You've gotten really disrespectful while I've been gone. It looks like I'm going to have to teach you some discipline again." He took a step toward Alice, and she started to undress.

Her hands trembled as she fumbled with the buttons on her blouse. This felt wrong, terribly wrong, but it was disturbingly familiar at the same time. Was this what happened in the basement? Surely not. _My father loves me,_ Alice thought to herself over and over-as if repetition would make it true. By the time she finished changing, her eyes were filled with tears. But she refused to wipe them.

"You know the routine," James said.

"I-I forgot," Alice replied softly, staring at the floor.

"Lie on the exam table, and put your arms and legs in the restraints." James ordered. Alice hesitated, so he said, "It's for your own protection." Then he took another step toward her, and she quickly complied.

Al was sensitive to restraints in the same way that Allison was sensitive to having her face touched, and she felt the disturbance deep within the mindscape. "Damn it! He's here! Why didn't you tell me?" she asked Allison.

"How was I supposed to know?" the avatar responded. "I'm in another body, now. I sense what Mercy is sensing back at the church. And I'm a little busy learning how to move."

Al swore loudly and disappeared into the conscious realm.


	71. Chapter 71

James had already fastened the restraint on one arm when Al took control of the body. She waited for him to bend close to the other arm. Then she yanked her fist out of the unlatched cuff and hit him in the face. She couldn't get much power behind her punch while lying down, but it was enough to make James step back.

"You little bitch!" he shouted, touching his lip to check for blood.

Al reached for the other restraint and worked to release it, but James slapped her. Then he grabbed her free hand and wrestled it back down.

Al attempted to teleport even though she knew Allison would disapprove. But she couldn't. So she spit in James' face, hoping to get him angry enough to let go of her arm. But he finished the latch before striking her again.

Al heard a sickening crunch and felt a burst of searing pain in the middle of her face. She knew this sensation well. Her nose was broken.

"You can't use your powers to heal this time," James taunted her, "so maybe you'll finally learn some obedience." He moved to the end of the table to restrain Al's feet, but she kicked wildly. So he got a syringe and stabbed her in the arm.

"What the... What was that?" Al asked as she started to swoon.

"Just a little sedative to make applying the restraints easier," James replied. "But don't worry, I'll save the fun for when you're awake."

Al cursed until her speech began to slur, and soon darkness overtook her.

In the church, Allison was learning how to stand in Mercy's body when she suddenly felt mentally exhausted. She had an overwhelming urge to retreat into the subconscious, and she fought it as long as she could. But at last she collapsed on the floor, sound asleep.

When Allison reappeared in the mindscape, startled gasps filled the crypt. The hybrid avatar was covered in blood from the knees down.

"Are you okay?" Al asked, staring at Allison's legs.

Allison looked at her feet and said, "Oh, that's Mercy."

Al thought Allison seemed nonchalant for someone who had been heartbroken no more than an hour ago, but before she could comment, Allison said, "What's going on?"

"We're asleep," Al replied. "He drugged us. I tried to resist, but Alice had already let him strap one arm down." She looked at the ceiling and shouted, "I'm going to kick her ass!" But Alice was above ground and couldn't hear anything in the crypt.

Allison said, "It's time to tell her."

Protests erupted from the crowd of personalities.

But Allison held up her hand. "We didn't have any options in childhood," she explained. "Protecting Alice psychologically was the best we could do. But now we have the ability to protect her physically-if she lets us. She doesn't have to know everything. I doubt she'd believe it, anyway. But she does need to know what kind of man Jimmy is and that she's stronger than she realizes."

"All right, tell her," Al said, and several others expressed agreement.

"I can't," Allison replied, rubbing the back of her leg with her foot. "I sent a telepathic message from Mercy's body, and I need to be there when help arrives."

"Then Alana should tell her," Al answered. She put a hand on Alana's shoulder and said, "You're good at that sort of thing."

"I think you should tell her," Allison said to Al. "It was just the three of us for years, so you and I know her better than anyone."

Al curled her lip. "I'm not good at touchy-feely crap."

"Then you should practice," Allison said. "And this is a good time to start."

The other personalities chimed in, and Al finally grumbled, "I'll do it."

Tony and Pepper had stayed up all night, reviewing records to figure out where Alice might be. But every lead had been a dead end. Tony's vision was starting to blur, and Pepper found herself reading the same sentence three times. But they both jolted awake when the phone rang.

"Hello? Yes, it is," Pepper said. "That's good news!" After a pause, she asked, "How did you know where we were staying? Did you cheat?" Then she laughed. "You're right! You know Tony pretty well." She winked at Tony and hung up. "That was Cynthia. She received a telepathic message from Allison. She's coming over to tell us everything."

"That's great!" Tony replied. "When is she-"

Cynthia suddenly appeared, and Tony jumped.

"Now," Pepper replied with a laugh. It was rare that Tony got startled by anything.

Cynthia began talking as if continuing the phone call. "As far as I can tell, Allison is safe-for now. She's in an abandoned church, but she doesn't know the name or address."

Pepper was instantly on the computer, looking up possibilities.

"What do you mean, as far as you can tell?" Tony asked.

"The message was...garbled," Cynthia explained. "I've never received anything like it. It was like picking up two radio stations at once, both full of static and talking over each other."

"Is that because of her split personality?" Tony asked.

Cynthia shook her head. "We've communicated telepathically before, and each personality has a distinct voice that I can clearly understand."

Pepper looked up from her computer. "Could Mercy be trying to block the signal?"

"Maybe," Cynthia replied. "But in my practice, I frequently encounter telepaths trying to block each other, and it never sounds like this."

Tony raised an eyebrow. "Playing referee to a family of meta humans must be challenging."

"Average humans can be just as challenging," Cynthia countered.

Tony nodded. He'd dealt with some of them in the boardroom.

"I have a list of abandoned churches within a 100-mile radius," Pepper declared. "Where should we begin?"

"Do you have pictures?" Cynthia asked. "I was able to see the room from Allison's perspective, and it looked like a cathedral. There can't be many of those standing empty."

Pepper slid the laptop toward Cynthia, who picked it up and began scrolling through images.

Tony asked, "What were you saying about me on the phone?"

Cynthia looked at Pepper, and they both smiled. "I knew where you were staying because it's the second most expensive hotel in the city."

Tony smirked. He knew he had expensive tastes and wasn't ashamed to admit it. "Why the second most expensive?"

"I figured you got kicked out of the most expensive hotel last night after Bruce's incident."

"They let us stay until morning," Tony confessed. "But I'm going to have to buy the place if I want to go there again."

"This could be it," Cynthia announced, pointing at the screen. "It's the only church on the list that fits."


	72. Chapter 72

Bruce was still in the closet-like prison of his mindscape when a crack of light appeared under the door, and his heart began to race. The Hulk had been making the rounds all night, interrogating personalities while the body slept, and it was Bruce's turn again.

"I don't know anything!" Bruce insisted, putting up his hands in self-defense.

"Yes, you do!" the Hulk retorted, slamming Bruce against the wall. "You're the genius... Think!"

"I don't know... We think Jimmy-Uncle James-is behind it. But he got this religious nut to do his dirty work-"

"Mercy?"

"You remember her?"

The Hulk grunted. "Bits." She'd been in the flashbacks that Madame Oana unleashed.

"She's the one who-"

"I know!" The Hulk smashed his fist though the wall next to Bruce's head. "You wouldn't let me out."

"I couldn't! Believe me, I tried, but I had no emotion. It's called dissociation-"

The Hulk sucker punched Bruce and left, slamming the door behind him.

Bruce slid down the wall. He was exhausted and covered bruises. None of them were real-they were symbolic of emotional damage-but they were painful, nonetheless. Bruce knew the Hulk wouldn't be this hard on other personalities. But the Hulk held Bruce in special contempt because he blamed him for all the abuse in childhood. Bruce leaned back and sighed. Then he noticed a narrow beam of light streaming through the hole the Hulk left in the wall. He jumped up and started digging at it.

_The Hulk was a young adult, still human, when Bruce finally decided to confront Brian about their mother's death. Brian responded violently, and the Hulk could feel the shock waves in the subconscious. He closed his eyes and groaned. Was Bruce ever going to stop being a patsy? He thought about letting Bruce face the consequences of his own actions, but somebody had to protect the body. Bruce sure as hell wouldn't._

_When the Hulk took control, he found himself on the ground, knocked against a tombstone, staring at his mother's grave. _A fitting place for a confrontation, _he thought, looking up at Brian. But Bruce had made a fatal mistake letting Brian push him down. Now Brian had the advantage and would show no mercy. Bruce should have known this. He should have fought harder._

_Brian was wearing his steel-toed shoes-the rib-breakers. How many times had the Hulk been kicked with those shoes? He flinched at the memory of untreated injuries that were never quite bad enough to be life-threatening-not that Brian didn't want to kill him, but the son of a bitch was afraid of getting caught._

_The Hulk suddenly realized there was nothing left to stop Brian. His mother was dead, and he no longer lived with the aunt who raised him. He didn't even have friends to report him missing. By the time anyone noticed the Hulk was gone, his father could flee the country and get away with murder...again. The Hulk glanced around, hoping to find witnesses, but he was utterly alone. And Brian was charging at him. That's when he knew he was going to die._

_But if the Hulk was going to die, he'd do it fighting. He kicked as hard as he could, hoping to knock Brian down and buy himself time to get up, maybe get away... Brian went sailing through the air, farther than the Hulk expected, and crashed into his own victim's tombstone, shattering his skull. The Hulk's heart stopped, and his blood turned cold. He rushed to his father's side to check for a pulse, but he knew he wouldn't find one-not with that injury. He hadn't meant to kill Brian. He was only trying to defend himself. And yet he felt a flood of relief._

_The Hulk had no idea how much his father had terrorized him until the threat was gone. For the first time in his life, he felt safe, and he laughed out loud. He laughed so hard he cried. Then guilt hit him. What kind of monster kills his own father-and feels good about it? He was a murderer, no better than Brian. But he swore he would never kill again, no matter how angry he got.*_

_The Hulk was about to stand up when Brian grabbed him by the throat and said, "I'm taking you to hell with me!" The Hulk clawed at Brian's cold, dead fingers, but he couldn't free himself. And as he fought for air, he felt Mercy pull down his pants. _This shouldn't be happening, _he thought. _I'm supposed to be safe now.

The Hulk bolted up, swinging his fists and shouting, "No!" For a moment he thought he was in hell. But he quickly realized he was still in the desert, where he'd made a crude shelter for the night. He felt foolish for his mistake, but Brian had systematically programmed him to fear hell. Like Mercy, Brian had been adept at twisting religion to his own ends. But unlike Mercy, Brian didn't believe it himself.

The information the Hulk had been gathering all night suddenly came together, and he realized that Mercy must be at a church, one that was empty but still looked like a church, one that was old and regal. And with the Hulk's ability to leap great distances, it wouldn't be hard to find.

* * *

*Based on the Hulk comic. After accidentally killing his father, Bruce forgot about the incident and believed he left his father alive after the argument. The implication is that his personality was already split _before_ his exposure to gamma radiation, so I'm filling in the Hulk's perspective. In a later comic, Bruce notes that the Hulk never killed anyone else, suggesting that Brian's death was not an accident. I've chosen a different explanation for the Hulk's clean record. In more recent comics, the Hulk _has_ killed other people, but I'm disregarding those for this story.


	73. Chapter 73

The sun was starting to rise when the Hulk ducked into the cathedral, and the red light passing through cracked stained glass gave everything an eerie glow. Mercy was lying motionless on the floor, but there was no sign of Allison. Had Allison managed to escape? Or did Jimmy come to get her?

The Hulk walked up to Mercy and towered over her. The gentle rise and fall of her chest told him she was still alive, and for a moment he was tempted to crush her. One stomp, and everyone would be avenged: Bruce, Allison, dozens of murder victims... But the Hulk needed information from Mercy... And he'd made a vow. So instead, he grabbed Mercy by the throat and hoisted her up.

Allison was instantly awake and fighting for her life. The Hulk was cutting off her air, so she couldn't tell him who she really was. She pounded at his fist, but he wouldn't let go. He held her until she felt like her head was going to explode. Then he hurled her across the room. She smacked against the wall and slid to the floor.

"Where is she?" the Hulk demanded, striding toward her.

Allison scrambled to get up, but she was still unfamiliar with Mercy's body and slipped. She tried to say, "I'm not Mercy," but it came out sounding like gibberish. The Hulk kicked her, and she felt searing pain as her ribs cracked. She remembered with dismay that Mercy's powers had been rendered useless, making the body completely vulnerable. But the Hulk didn't know this and was attacking with the same force he'd use against an indestructible foe.

Allison tried again to explain who she was, but the words still came out wrong. The Hulk kicked her once more, and she squawked as one of the cracked ribs broke. If the Hulk drove that rib into her lung, she could die. "Ahma ahma ahma!" she pleaded. But the Hulk tightened his lips and shifted his weight. Allison knew he was about to deliver the fatal blow, and she tried to shield herself. But her arms flopped helplessly.

"Leave her alone!" Tony ordered, bursting through the doors in his armor. "We're bringing her to justice the right way."

The Hulk snarled at Tony and turned back to Mercy.

"Look at her!" Pepper shouted, arriving behind Tony. "She's not using her powers."

The Hulk paused to watch Mercy. Pepper was right. Why wasn't Mercy resisting?

Cynthia materialized in their midst and said, "Something is wrong."

The Hulk narrowed his eyes. He didn't like this strange woman who could knock him out with her words. But Bruce trusted her, and winning his trust wasn't easy.

Cynthia walked over to the Hulk. He curled his lip but stepped aside to let her kneel next to Mercy.

"May I enter your mind?" Cynthia asked.

The Hulk growled. He couldn't believe Cynthia was asking Mercy's permission. Mercy didn't deserve such consideration.

Cynthia looked up at the Hulk and said, "She may not have ethics, but I do." Then she turned to Mercy and repeated her question.

Mercy nodded, and the two telepaths stared silently at each other for a moment. Then the color drained from Cynthia's face, and she pulled away.

Tony and Pepper both aimed their weapons at Mercy, unsure what was happening.

"What have you done?" Cynthia croaked.

The Hulk clenched his jaw and moved toward Mercy, but Cynthia put up her hand. "It's Allison," she explained, "in Mercy's body."

"What? How is that possible?" Pepper asked.

"Allison did something wrong...very wrong," Cynthia replied, and Allison hung her head.

Tony raised his visor. "What did she do?"

"She decimated Mercy's personality and took over her body," Cynthia explained.

"Like Loki during the invasion?" Tony asked, remembering how Loki had taken control of Clint Barton and others.

Cynthia had worked with some of Loki's victims and understood the question. "This is worse," she answered. "After Loki's victims were freed from his control, they reverted to their original personalities. But there's nothing left of Mercy."

"Nobba nobba," Allison tried to protest.

Cynthia knew what Allison was trying to say. "There's nothing functional left," she corrected. "Sure, there are fragments. But even if they heal, Mercy will never be the same."

"That sounds like a good thing to me," Pepper said.

"Maybe it is-for society," Cynthia responded. "But I'm thinking about Allison. When you commit an atrocity like this, you damage your own soul."

Fire flashed in Allison's eyes, and she burst out in a passionate string of nonsense.

Cynthia rubbed Allison's arm and said, "I share responsibility for this, and I'll do what I can to help you recover." She turned to Tony and Pepper. "I taught Allison how to use her powers without teaching her ethics. I should have known her upbringing had blurred her sense of boundaries."

Tony forced himself to ask the question that was on all their minds. "Why is Allison in Mercy's body? Where's her own body? Is it...all right?"

Cynthia studied Allison a moment and said, "Her body-and the other personalities-are in Jimmy's hideout. He has a power dampening field to keep her from teleporting. But she was able to use an existing connection with Mercy to get part of her mind outside the field, where she could send telepathic signals."

"Can she lead us there?" Pepper asked.

Allison nodded, and Cynthia helped her to her feet.


	74. Chapter 74

Alice knew she was dreaming because she was talking to herself-literally. The other Alice was sitting with her in an open, grassy field, explaining to her that she no longer had to fear her father.

"You keep telling yourself you deserve to be treated this way because you want to believe your father is a good man," Al said. "But once you accept the truth about him, you'll see you have every right to fight back."

"But he's so strong," Alice protested.

"So are you," Al answered. "You have no idea what you can do. Just start fighting and trust your inner resources to help you."

"What inner resources?"

Before Al could answer, an invisible force smashed her and Alice together in a bear hug.

"Let me go!" Alice demanded, pushing against Al.

"I'm not doing this," Al replied, pushing back.

"Well, I'm not doing it."

"I think Jimmy is trying to integrate us."

"What?"

"You know, bring us back together as one personality."

Alice stopped struggling for a moment. "I don't have a split personality. It's not a legitimate diagnosis."

"Yes, it is! If you look in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-" Al gasped for air as the force squeezed them tighter. "Goddammit, Alice, why do you have to be so stubborn? Forget the diagnosis. Does this feel right to you?"

"No, it feels like..." Alice trailed off as she realized it felt like rape. Al knew she'd made her point when Alice went pale. Integration could be a good thing, but only if the personalities involved were ready and willing. "My father would never hurt me like this... I must be doing it to myself. My subconscious is trying to-" Alice stopped mid-sentence and stared at her chest. Her flesh was melding with Al's. When she tried to pull away, it stretched like silly putty.

Alice woke up screaming. She was still in the lab, strapped to the exam table. But she could only remember her father fastening one restraint. When had he applied the others? And why had she been unconscious? Her memory problems, like her nightmares, were getting worse.

Jimmy turned around. "Good, you're awake," he said. "We can resume treatment."

In her mind, Alice heard Al say, _Fight! Resist him any way you can._

_Who's there? _Alice thought in reply. _How are you doing this?_

Jimmy said, "You brought your feisty little friend, didn't you?" When Alice looked confused, he ran his finger along her collar. "You can't hide anything from me. I've deactivated your powers."

"Powers?" Alice repeated, emphasizing the _s_. "I only have one: healing. And who's my 'friend'?"

Jimmy frowned in appreciation. "They've done an excellent job of keeping the truth from you."

"Who?"

"Your other personalities."

"But I don't have-"

"-a split personality," James interrupted, finishing her sentence. "You've always been so stubborn...and misguided." He paused to stroke her face. "You're going to be the hardest of them all to break. But it will be worthwhile because you'll be loyal, so loyal you'll be an extension of me: two bodies with one soul.

Al said, _Bite his hand._

Pain exploded through Alice's face as Jimmy slapped her. "I heard that!" he snapped.

The tenderness Alice felt could only mean one thing. "My nose is broken. How did that happen?"

"How do you think it happened?" Jimmy retorted. "You were being disrespectful. I think it's time for some remedial training."

Alice went numb. "I'm sorry. It's been a while, and I forgot the rules. Please, don't do this. Give me another chance."

Al said, _Stop blaming yourself._

_Shut up!_ Alice thought in reply. _You're getting me in trouble._

"Oh no," Jimmy interrupted out loud. "You're getting yourself in trouble. You're the core of your personality system. You're the one who's resisting me. If you hadn't been so stubborn, I wouldn't have had to partition your powers by personality. You could have been the most powerful being on earth. But you wouldn't let me guide you."

"I've been nothing but obedient my whole life!"

"But you only obeyed me out of fear, not because you knew I was right."

"Why would I defend you if I thought you were wrong?"

"Why would you feel a need to defend me if you knew I was right?"

Al said, _You're blaming yourself because you want to believe the abuse will stop when you're good enough. But nothing will ever be good enough for him. He wants to control everything, even your soul._

Alice suddenly found herself back in the mindscape with the other Alice still attached to her. But now her father was there, too.

"The feisty one is a bad influence," Jimmy declared. "I thought I was integrating you with the timid one because you were having a heart-to-heart conversation." He turned to Al. "That's not like you."

"People can change," Al replied. "You should try it some time."

Jimmy pulled his hands apart. At the gesture, an unseen force ripped Al and Alice away from each other and sent them sailing in opposite directions.

Alice looked down at her chest. The broken cords of flesh stung, but they were quickly being absorbed back into her body.

Jimmy strutted to Al and looked down at her. "Where's the timid one?" he asked.

Al hopped to her feet and dusted herself off. "I don't know what you're talking about," she answered. "I don't have a split personality."

Alice was getting up slowly and smirked at the sarcasm. She'd never had the courage to use that tone with her father, and it felt good to hear it.

Jimmy backhanded Al and sent her flying thirty feet, reminding Alice why she was afraid of him. He wasn't that strong in real life, but he was strong enough.

Al jumped up, did a couple of somersaults, and was face-to-face with Jimmy again. "No one treats me like that," she said, "especially in my own mindscape."

Jimmy heard a click and looked down. Al was pressing a sawed-off shotgun against his stomach.

"No, don't!" Alice gasped. But Al pulled the trigger, and Jimmy vaporized. "You killed my father!" Alice screamed.

"No, I evicted him from our mindscape. In reality, he's alive and well."

"Where did you get the gun?" Alice asked.

"I wished for it. The mindscape operates under different rules from reality."

"The what?"

Al said, "There's no time to explain. You're going to have to trust me and do what I say."


	75. Chapter 75

Bruce finally broke free from his mental prison and managed to regain control of the body. He felt someone leaning on him and turned to see that it was Mercy. Panic seized him, and he reflexively pushed Mercy away, knocking Cynthia down, too, who had been supporting Mercy on the other side. He fell to his knees on Mercy's chest and began pounding her face. He heard voices in the distance, but he ignored them. Mercy's lip was cut, and her nose was bleeding. But it wasn't enough. He wanted to pulverize her face, and he wanted to do it himself, not as the Hulk, so he could remember her look of horror. He wanted that look to replace his memory of her smug expression during the rape.

Someone grabbed Bruce from behind and pulled him off Mercy. He heard a voice in his ear and shivered as he remembered his father's attacks. He closed his eyes and bit his lip, waiting for the pain, but nothing happened. The voice spoke again, and this time he recognized it was Tony. "It's not Mercy in there. It's Allison."

Bruce looked at Cynthia for confirmation, and she nodded. "Allison can't access Mercy's powers, so she's vulnerable in this body."

Bruce went pale. "If the Hulk had come out again..." He couldn't bring himself to say the rest.

Tony released Bruce. "He knows who she is. That's probably why he didn't come out. He knew he'd crush her."

Bruce squinted at Tony. "You think he has that much control?"

Tony shrugged. "Maybe."

"Then I didn't have to..."

"What?" Pepper asked.

Bruce rubbed his face. "Nothing." He'd always thought the Hulk had no choice but to emerge during emotional crises. But if the Hulk had control over the change, all those years of celibacy might have been unnecessary. It didn't matter now, though. Since Mercy's attack-and the return of childhood memories-Bruce had no desire for sex. And he wondered if he ever would again.

"Why is she in Mercy's body?" Bruce asked. He was trying not to look at Allison because seeing her in Mercy's body made him want to vomit. But he couldn't ignore her entirely because he felt like Mercy might take over and attack at any moment. So he focused on Tony's face and shot quick glances in her direction.

Tony said, "Her body is trapped in Jimmy's hideout. Mercy had a telepathic connection with her, so she used it to-"

"Something's wrong!" Cynthia interrupted. Allison was pale and her breathing was shallow. Cynthia ran her hand along Allison's chest and side, and Allison yelped. "She has a broken rib...and I feel bubbles."

Bruce's heart skipped a beat. "Tension pneumothorax?"

Cynthia put her head to Allison's chest and listened. "Yes."

"What's that?" Pepper asked.

"Her rib has punctured her lung," Cynthia answered, "and air is building up in her chest cavity, making it difficult to breathe."

Tony said, "That sounds serious."

"It is," Cynthia replied. "Call Dr. Blake and tell him to prep an O.R. He knows where to meet me."

Tony said, "Where are you-" But Cynthia scooped up Allison and disappeared before he could finish his question. By the time he turned to Pepper, she was already on the phone.

Bruce sank into a pew and held his head in his hands. "I don't understand. I never hit her in the side..."

"No," Tony said, sitting next to him. "But the Hulk was kicking her before he found out who she was. If he broke her rib, it wouldn't take much to-"

"Wait a minute. What was he doing?"

"He was kicking her," Tony replied. "She was lying on the floor, and-"

Bruce pounded the back of the pew in front of him swore. "He knows better!"

Tony, who had already removed his armor, began discretely fishing in his pocket for a TranQuill. "What are you talking about?"

Bruce clenched his jaw and closed his eyes, trying to regain control. After a few breaths, he said, "He... _We_ know what that feels like."

Tony inhaled deeply. He knew Bruce was talking about the childhood abuse.

"I've spent my whole life trying not to become my father," Bruce continued. "But the Hulk seems hell-bent on emulating him in every way."

"Not every way," Tony replied. He knew the Hulk would never hurt children.

Bruce flushed. "Maybe not," he conceded. "But you know what I mean."

Pepper ended her phone call and said, "We're supposed to meet them at Thor's clinic."

Bruce frowned. "They don't have surgical facilities there."

Pepper shrugged. "That's where Thor said to go."

Tony and Pepper turned to Bruce. "We flew here in our suits," Tony said.

"Then you can fly to the clinic, and I'll get a cab," Bruce replied. But the others kept looking at him and said nothing. "I know what you're thinking," Bruce continued, "and the answer is no."

"Come on," Pepper cajoled. "It will be fun."

"Fun for you, maybe, but I'm the one who goes splat if you drop me."

Pepper said, "We won't drop you."

"No, you won't," Bruce agreed, "because I'm staying on the ground."

"But driving takes longer," Tony reminded him.

"That's fine by me," Bruce replied. "I'm not in a hurry to see Mercy again."

"But she's not Mercy, she's your cousin," Pepper said, "and she's critically injured."

Bruce crossed his arms and shook his head. "That is a fragment of Allison's personality in Mercy's body. She has a body of her own somewhere else, and that's the one I'm worried about."

"We need Allison in this body to help us find the rest of her," Pepper insisted.

Tony noticed the fine tremor in Bruce's arms and realized he was using defiance to hide his fear. "That's okay," Tony said to Pepper. "You go ahead. I'll ride with Bruce in the cab."

"But-" Pepper stopped short when Tony tilted his head in that way of his that meant _I'll explain later._ "Okay," she sighed.

Bruce said to Tony, "Go with Pepper. I don't need a babysitter."

"I'm not so sure about that," Tony teased. "The last time you went off on your own, the National Guard had to be activated."

Bruce raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Yeah, it was spectacular," Tony said, taking Bruce by the elbow and ushering him toward the door. "I'll tell you all about it on the way."

"I'm not sure I want to know..."

Pepper smiled, shook her head, and started putting on her suit.

"You're getting around better," Tony remarked as they waited for the cab.

"What? Oh... Yeah... I guess I am."

"Isn't that why you went to see Madame Oana? To get the implant removed?"

Bruce nodded and stared intently down the street.

"Whatever happened there must have been really bad to set the big guy off like that."

Bruce turned to Tony. "I get it, okay? I made a stupid mistake, and Allison is paying for it."

"That's not what I meant..."

"Cynthia warned me, but I wouldn't listen. I thought I could take it. How could it get any worse, right?" Bruce scoffed. "Boy, was I wrong."

"Flashbacks?"

Bruce rolled his eyes and looked down the street again.

"I know about flashbacks," Tony began.

Bruce didn't move, but his jaw twitched. "Not this kind," he said.

"No," Tony agreed. "Not this kind."

Bruce was silent for a very long time. Then he said, "Every day... Every day until I went to live with my aunt."

Tony knew Bruce was talking about the incest. That's why Bruce was avoiding eye contact.

"How can anyone do that...to a child?" Bruce asked.

"He was delusional," Tony answered gently.

Bruce finally looked at Tony and said, "So is Mercy." His face was hard as steel.

"Not anymore," Tony replied. "Cynthia says that Allison obliterated Mercy's personality."

"Mercy has survived worse," Bruce reminded Tony. "If any part of her is left, she can regenerate. And when she does, I hate to think what will happen if Allison is still in her body."


End file.
